Even when Israeli troops eradicate Hamas, the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority because the group’s successor in Gaza is way from assured. Hamas militants ousted it from energy within the enclave in 2007, and within the years since, the Authority has languished within the West Financial institution, dogged by prices of corruption, weak point and a scarcity of accountability.
Mr. al-Sheikh personifies such issues. Regardless of being considered as a possible successor to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s 87-year-old president, he’s not common with the general public in his job overseeing day-to-day relations between Palestinians and the Israeli army, which have develop into more and more fractious for the reason that battle broke out.
In his interview with The Occasions, Mr. al-Sheikh acknowledged the flamable nature of the area after final month’s assaults and the Israeli army response, a battle that has killed 10,000 Palestinians, in accordance with the Gazan well being authorities.
“And not using a complete political initiative from the U.S.,” he stated, a postwar Gaza could be “a fertile soil for radicalism.”
For his half, Mr. Biden has publicly embraced a Palestinian state as a treatment for the disaster. “There must be a imaginative and prescient of what comes subsequent,” he stated not too long ago of the battle between Israel and Hamas. “In our view, it must be a two-state answer.”
However he has but to put out a street map for getting there and, till now, has performed little to recommend that his administration will spend money on such a undertaking.
Mr. Biden didn’t comply with by means of on a marketing campaign pledge to reopen the Washington workplace of the Palestine Liberation Group, which his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, ordered closed. He didn’t reopen the American consulate in Jerusalem, which served Palestinians and was additionally closed by Mr. Trump. And in contrast to a number of of Mr. Biden’s predecessors, he has not named a Center East envoy.
Till the Hamas assaults, the Center East peace course of ranked comparatively low on the checklist of White Home foreign-policy priorities, after geopolitical rivalries like China and Russia. However the explosion of battle between Israel and Hamas has catapulted the problem again to the highest of the checklist.
On his tour of the area prior to now week, Mr. Blinken, who had flown from Israel to Jordan, doubled again to satisfy with Mr. Abbas and Mr. al-Sheikh. He praised the Palestinian Authority for attempting to maintain order within the West Financial institution, the place tensions have soared between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, a few of whom are armed and have attacked their neighbors.
On Wednesday, at a gathering of international ministers in Tokyo, Mr. Blinken described what he known as “components to get a sustained peace,” mainly the unification of Gaza with the West Financial institution beneath the Palestinian Authority.
“These should embody the Palestinian individuals’s voices and aspirations on the heart of post-crisis governance in Gaza,” he stated. “It should embody Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Financial institution beneath the Palestinian Authority.”
However Israel could fall out with the US on that strategy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested this week that his nation would preserve a safety position in Gaza even after the battle ends, as a result of “we’ve seen what occurs once we don’t have it.”
Mr. al-Sheikh stated he didn’t consider that any peace deal was potential with Mr. Netanyahu, or his authorities, which incorporates far-right and ultranationalist ministers who favor Israel’s annexation of the West Financial institution.
Mr. Netanyahu, he stated, was seizing on the Hamas assaults to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, likening the state of affairs to what the Palestinians name the “nakba,” or disaster, the mass displacement of Palestinians earlier than and after Israel’s creation in 1948.
“The strategic objective of this battle is to displace the Palestinian individuals,” he stated. “They need to separate Gaza fully from the West Financial institution.”
In right now’s infected ambiance, Mr. al-Sheikh stated, the Palestinian Authority’s plea for calm is unpopular with its individuals, who’re enraged by the deaths of 1000’s of Palestinian civilians within the Gaza battle and yearn for vengeance.
“Palestinians don’t settle for this stance proper now,” he stated. “Individuals could not perceive my place right now, however they are going to tomorrow.”
“I’m not Hamas,” Mr. al-Sheikh concluded. “I symbolize the Palestinian individuals.”