The relationship between the American administration and the Palestinian Authority is marred by great tension these days, against the backdrop of unlimited American support for Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the main disagreement with the United States today is related to America’s position in support of the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip “until the end that Israel wants.”
According to the sources, the American administration does not want to stop the war, but rather “lift the cover on Hamas, Palestinian and Arab, and neutralize the other fronts,” which is the main reason for the worsening dispute.
The sources confirmed that the cancellation of the quadripartite summit, which was supposed to bring together US President Joe Biden with Jordanian King Abdul II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, on Wednesday, came after the Arab presidents realized that it would not lead to any progress in terms of Stopping the war, and that this was not acceptable after the Baptist Hospital massacre, in which Israel killed about 500 Palestinians who fled with their families to the hospital.
Abbas was the first to announce his withdrawal from the summit and left Amman late on Tuesday. He arrived in Ramallah and held a meeting of the Palestinian leadership after midnight. He clearly attacked the United States, saying that it did not want to protect the Palestinians.
Criticizing the United States, Abbas said: “We will do whatever is necessary to stop the bloodbath in proud Gaza and in the valiant West Bank. We will never accept any talk other than stopping this war from anyone, and the Security Council must shoulder its responsibilities and take the initiative to issue a resolution condemning this crime (bombing the hospital) and stop the aggression immediately.”
He added: “The international community warned us of the consequences of the crimes of the Israeli occupation, and I demand in these difficult moments that the occupation government be held accountable and that international protection be provided for our people. They took dozens of decisions for the international protection of our people and did not implement them. Because America does not want to implement it.”
He continued: “We will not allow a new catastrophe in the twenty-first century, and we will not accept that our people are displaced again. Our people will remain steadfast on the land of their homeland, and we will not leave, and we will not leave, and we will not leave, no matter how great the sacrifices are.”
Abbas addressed the Gazans, telling them: “The Israeli plan to displace you from the land of our homeland will not pass, and we will confront it by all means.”
Abbas saluted the position of all Arab countries that rejected displacement, and all countries that called for non-displacement. He added: “We will remain on our land. We will not leave our land, and we will not allow anyone to remove us from our land as they did in the past. The past will not be repeated, and the 48th and 67th will not be repeated. Here we will remain.”
The tension in the Palestinian-American relationship is not new, and the relationship was completely cut off during the days of the previous American administration headed by Donald Trump, due to his position on the conflict, his proposal of the “deal of the century” plan, his transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, the closure of the Palestinian consulate there, and the closure of the representative office of the “organization.” Liberation” in Washington, and cut off all aid to the Palestinians, but it resumed with the current administration, which restored aid and promised to address other issues.
Even before the outbreak of war, the American-Palestinian relationship could be described as good, with ebbs and flows. But the unlimited American support for Israel, which reached the point where the United States became a partner in this war, with US President Joe Biden personally attending Israel and meeting with the Israeli War Council, a step preceded by the US Secretary of Defense and State, generated Palestinian anger and left an impression on everyone. Ramallah, Amman, and Egypt said that this support may amount to agreeing to deport the Palestinians.
Israel's insistence on pushing the Palestinians to flee from the northern and central Gaza Strip to southern Gaza (the Gaza Valley area) has sparked regional fears of an Israeli plan to displace the Palestinians. Indeed, according to the sources that Asharq Al-Awsat spoke to, there is information and absolute conviction that there is a plan that will be implemented in Gaza Strip, and later in the West Bank, to displace Palestinians.
The sources confirmed that there is a Palestinian, Jordanian, and Egyptian agreement to reject these plans, whatever the cost. Abbas told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the war must be stopped and the Israelis must be restrained, not fully supported. Because this support has unleashed their hand in destruction and killing in an unprecedented way, to the point where they want to revive old plans to deport the Palestinians to Sinai, but Blinken focused on the fact that the war is not against the Palestinians, but rather against “Hamas,” and he wanted to lift the Palestinian cover from it.
According to the sources, there was tension in the discussion when Abbas suggested that Washington’s bias and lack of support for the Authority and the establishment of a Palestinian state, and bias towards Israel, were what led the situation to this point.
In addition to Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi pledged to thwart the plan to displace Palestinians.
Displacing Palestinians to Sinai is an old idea that Israeli officials presented to the former presidents of Egypt, Anwar Sadat and Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, and the response was a decisive rejection, considering that the issue, in addition to having a national dimension, constitutes an Egyptian national security issue.
With the start of the current war, an Israeli army spokesman advised the Palestinians to flee to Sinai. Then the army quickly withdrew and amended the statement after great Egyptian anger, and then Israeli officials began promoting it unofficially.
While the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, said that the Palestinians must evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, and that a protected area will be designated for them in the south with aid, and an Israeli army spokesman said that the status of Gaza after the end of the war will be “a global issue up for international discussion,” he did not The head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, Avigdor Lieberman, who held ministerial positions including the Ministry of Defense, hesitates to say that establishing a “refugee city” in Sinai is the only solution for the Gaza Strip, and this is the time.
