The visit of Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs within the Department of State, to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) last week, led to a renewed discussion on the future of the PA the day after Mahmoud Abbas leaves.
A sigh of relief and satisfaction, disgust for President Donald Trump and anticipation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s weakening, along with fears of renewed tension between Fatah and Hamas – this is how the Palestinian arena reacted to Joe Biden’s victory.
Yaakov Lappin: While Hamas’s sovereignty in Gaza is unrivalled—largely through a reign of terror and internal repression—actual popular support for the terror group could be decreasing.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas declared that he would not stop paying salaries to convicted terrorists and their families, despite new Israeli legislation withholding funds in the amount paid to killers and attackers from taxes collected for the P.A.
There is little hope that reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah will end a decade of bitter internecine feuding which has seen a parallel entrenchment of territorial divisions between them in Gaza and the West Bank...writes David Singer.
