Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has requested Hamas quit the Gaza Strip and condemned, for the first time, the October 7th pogrom. The comments appear in a letter from the PA chief both to President Emmanuel Macron of France and to Saudi Arabian diplomats.
The letter was written ahead of next week’s United Nations summit, partly initiated by Macron, which claims it will attempt to work out the terms of a ‘two-state solution’ for Israel and Palestine. Macron’s response was to welcome its
concrete and unprecedented commitments, demonstrating a real willingness to move towards the implementation of the two-state solution.
Critics say that the discussion—let alone recognition of a Palestinian state—would reward the aggression coming out of Gaza in 2023. Israel views such proposals as a security threat.
Superficially, the PA seems committed to ending the war, disarming Hamas, inviting international supervision and holding elections. It’s more likely that the moribund authority—some of whose representatives were murdered by Hamas after losing the most recent Gaza Strip elections to them—is seeking to curry favour with (and patronage from) the international community.
