Into the deliberate vacuum created by Israel on the question of the day after in the Gaza Strip, the US enters and leaves its uncompromising mark: the Palestinian Authority's control of Gaza and the pursuit of a two-state solution.
46th US President Joe Biden lands in Israel: "The two-state solution remains the best for Israelis and Palestinians" // Reuters
Successive Netanyahu governments have kept the two-state dream alive and kicking for the Americans, they prevented unilateral steps that would harm the chances of establishing a Palestinian state, they kept the faltering Palestinian Authority afloat, and yes, even in the incumbent right-wing government, Minister Ron Dermer worked day and night with the Democratic administration to ensure that the steps sought to be taken by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich would not be implemented, chief among them the PA's budgetary weakening of the terror fundraiser.
After every announcement by Smotrich or Ben-Gvir, Dermer was sent to ensure that what happened was what would be. For Americans, this was a vital need. If peace with the Palestinians cannot be advanced under Biden, at the very least the dream should be left as an option, and it can exist as long as the Palestinian Authority is given enough air – especially money – to survive.
Sent to put out fires. Dermer, Photo: Efrat Eshel
Now that Israel is in its most difficult hour, the Biden administration is not hiding the opportunity it sees in uprooting the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip: the return of the dream – unified PA rule in Gaza and the West Bank. The day after, Israel can only dream of stopping Abbas from establishing a state in such a situation.
Taking over the vacuum
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes no secret of the administration's ambitions in this regard. Vice versa. Earlier this week, it was reported that Blinken told Abbas that the PA should control Gaza the day after. Yesterday it was already heard from the mouth of heroism. In front of the cameras, the Secretary of State said that "united rule in Gaza and Judea and Samaria must be ensured under the Palestinian Authority."
Thus, while Israel decides strategically not to discuss the question of the day after in order to preserve the legitimacy of the actions of the war in Gaza, the US is taking over the vacuum created and dictating a reality that Israel will find it difficult to shake off.
He does not hide the administration's ambitions in this context. Blinken, Photo: Reuters pool
The only contra given by Israel so far to Mahmoud Abbas' post-war victory over Gaza and the collapse of Hamas was vague and dealt only with the security issue. Netanyahu has officially said that "there is no escape from security control of the Gaza Strip after the war," but security control like Judea and Samaria still leaves daily affairs in Gaza without a landlord. Abbas, by the way, is in no hurry to jump at the opportunity – and of course he demands from the United States all sorts of benefits that come with the "portfolio" of the state on the way.
The U.S. indulgence in the possibility of Mahmoud Abbas ruling Gaza flutters to the joy of the "democratic" elections in the Gaza Strip that led to the election of Hamas and the throwing of Abbas' people from the rooftops the day after. The democratic mechanisms dreamed of in the Biden administration do not meet the reality in the Middle East, but mistakes are never repeated.
The vacuum that Israel is leaving now will lead to a dangerous reality that we cannot resist. The desire to leave tomorrow's wars for power in the Gaza Strip until after the war has encountered determined administrations of our own in Western countries, led by the United States, which will impose a dangerous reality on us. It is inconceivable that IDF soldiers go out to fight in order to give power to Mahmoud Abbas. Even he doesn't really like this picture.
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