How the Biden Administration Is Trying to Bribe the Palestinians
by Bassam Tawil • September 13, 2023 at 5:00 am
Palestinian officials... have assured the US that they will not oppose Saudi-Israeli efforts at normalization, in the hope of receiving security, financial and political incentives from the Biden administration.
The Palestinian list of demands for not opposing a Saudi-Israeli deal includes, among other things: Resuming Saudi financial support to the Palestinian Authority, which slowed from 2016 and stopped completely three years ago, to the tune of around $200 million per year, and transferring parts of the West Bank currently under full Israeli control to the governance of the Palestinian Authority. The talk is about land in the West Bank's Area C, which, according to the Oslo Accords, is exclusively controlled by Israel.
It appears, then, that Saudi Arabia and the Biden Administration are offering a bribe to the Palestinians in return for their silence over a Saudi-Israeli deal. The Biden administration seems desperate to achieve some kind of deal ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, presumably in the hope that it would boost President Joe Biden's chances of being re-elected.
The Palestinian list of demands for refraining from condemning a Saudi-Israeli peace accord can be seen as tantamount to blackmail. The Palestinian leadership is telling the Saudis and Americans that if they want to avoid Palestinian condemnation, they must pay the price -- with money and territory.
The Saudis are being asked to pay $200 million per year and the Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure -- or blackmail -- Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises. [T]he Americans, it appears, are expected to pressure -- or blackmail -- Israel into ceding control of more territory in the West Bank to Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, in exchange for promises.
The Palestinian leaders will happily accept any additional land in the West Bank, but, as experience has shown, they will do nothing to prevent these areas from becoming terror hubs.
Given the ongoing state of financial and administrative corruption in the PA, there is every reason to doubt that the Saudi funds would be used to boost the Palestinian economy or improve the living conditions of the Palestinians.
"The corruption began from the first moment that the Palestinian Authority began to gather the Palestinian people's money and aid and pour it into the [ruling] Fatah [faction] budget, even though this money was given to the Palestinian people, not the Palestinian Authority or its officials who have divided it amongst themselves.... The many scandals of such officials and those close to Abbas have been exposed and seen as symbols of financial and political corruption, nepotism, bribery, smuggling and theft." — Middle East Monitor, "Corruption in the Palestinian Authority," December 2013.
Several militias and armed gangs are currently operating in the northern parts of the West Bank, while the PA is doing nothing to rein in the terrorists or prevent them from attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The PA, which has spectacularly failed to enforce law and order in areas under its control, is demanding that Israel now allow it to gain control over even more territory in the West Bank?
Any land that will be handed over to the Palestinian Authority will end up in the hands of militiamen and armed gangsters. All one has to do is look at the situation in the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Jenin.... The terrorists there are carrying out attacks against Israelis on a daily basis, and the PA is not lifting a hand to stop them.
Handing over more land to the Palestinian Authority only means allowing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to expand their control to still other parts of the West Bank. The Biden administration and the Saudis, in fact, would probably be quite happy if the entire West Bank fell into the hands of Iran's proxies.
Worse, the starry-eyed American assumption that the Palestinians, once they receive financial aid, will not turn around and trash a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, is completely baseless. Palestinian leaders may keep quiet about a deal, but they cannot stop the Palestinian people from condemning Saudi Arabia.
As with the Oslo Accords, the Israelis would be expected to trade tangible land for intangible promises. That arrangement did not work before, and there is no reason to think it will work this time.
If the Biden administration does give the Palestinian leadership money to avoid Palestinian criticism of the Biden administration, the Palestinian people will condemn both the US and their own leadership as traitors for slipping more money than they will ever see into the corrupt leaders' Swiss bank accounts.
Abbas and his aides will take the money, but they will never be able to sell their own people a peace agreement with Israel. Palestinian leaders have been allowed by the international community -- which never demanded anything in return for the billions of dollars they showered on the Palestinian Authority -- to radicalize their own people to a point where any peaceful solution with Israel can longer be put forth without the Palestinian leadership being called traitors and immediately condemned, or put, to death.
Palestinian leaders owe an apology to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, the two Arab countries that signed peace treaties with Israel three years ago. Then, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership strongly condemned the UAE and Bahrain and accused them of "betraying" the Palestinian people. The Palestinians even recalled their ambassadors to the two countries and held a series of demonstrations to protest the peace accords.
Now, however, Palestinian leaders seem to have a different view on a possible normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
According to some reports, Palestinian officials in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians, have assured the US that they will not oppose Saudi-Israeli efforts at normalization, in the hope of receiving security, financial and political incentives from the Biden administration. The Media Line revealed on September 4:
