GAZA CITY: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare visit to Israel on Tuesday for a meeting with Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Gantz approved a raft of measures aimed at improving relations with the Palestine on Wednesday.
It was the second meeting between the two following their talks at the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency in Ramallah in August. That meeting focused on what the Israeli media described as “routine security issues.”
Some Palestinian factions denounced Tuesday’s talks, labeling them a “reinforcement of internal divisions.”
But the Abbas-led Fatah movement said that it was “a serious attempt to put an end to the escalatory practices against the Palestinian people, and to open a political path based on international legitimacy.”
Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein Al-Sheikh, who accompanied Abbas, said that the meeting focused on the importance of “finding a political horizon that leads to a political solution under international legitimacy resolutions.”
Al-Sheikh tweeted that the two sides also discussed “the tense field conditions, due to the settler practices and attacks, as well as many security, economic and humanitarian issues.”
A statement issued by Gantz’s office said that the two-hour meeting discussed “maintaining security and stability, and preventing terrorism and violence,” besides civil and economic issues.
Gantz told Abbas that he will work to strengthen security coordination.
After the meeting, the Israeli Kan TV channel quoted a senior Palestinian official as saying: “The gap is very large and there is currently no opportunity for a political breakthrough.
“First of all, there must be a political horizon, without which everything we do can explode in a minute.”
The meeting came after years of political deadlock under former US president Donald Trump, who reportedly had a bad relationship with President Abbas.
The Palestinian leadership views President Joe Biden differently and has demanded that he fulfill promises made during his election campaign, including opening a political path to achieve a two-state solution, pressuring Israel to halt settlements and reopening the US Consulate in East Jerusalem, which Trump closed in 2018.
Washington has resumed financial and economic support for the Palestinian Authority, and, after a joint economic meeting on Dec. 14, announced a new package of projects.
The Abbas-Gantz meeting was preceded by a meeting between the Palestinian president and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and an accompanying delegation, and another with Yael Lempert, US acting assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs.
Although Palestinian officials said that the meetings were aimed at creating paths to a political solution, some observers warned that they were only held to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
Last November, Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that Israel had asked the Biden administration to pressure Arab and European countries to increase financial aid to the crisis-hit Palestinian Authority, in order to prevent the deterioration of security in the West Bank.
Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, stressed that the Palestinian leadership believes in finding a political solution based on “the two-state option and international legitimacy,” and that “the economic track cannot be a substitute for the political track.”
He added: “Trump tried to promote an economic solution, pump billions to end the Palestinian political cause, and held a conference in Bahrain for this goal, but he failed.
“Without a just political solution, all movements, including Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s attempts to manage the conflict, not resolve it, are a waste of time and will fail, and will not achieve stability in the region.”
Bilal Al-Shobaki, a professor of political science at Hebron University in the West Bank, said that the Abbas-Gantz meeting was based on the “economic and security track, without any political solutions.”
He said Washington and Tel Aviv are “keen to save the Palestinian Authority and support it financially and economically to prevent its collapse, but without any political solutions that could lead to a Palestinian state.”
