Washington’s vision for Israel-Palestine includes government architecture that will provide security for Israelis and will also ensure that Palestinians are not forced out of their homes or subject to any more blockades, which Israeli officials admit to enforcing. “Five principles guide our approach for post-conflict Gaza: no forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in remarks after speaking with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Harris underscored the administration’s commitment to a two-state colution, adding that the Palestinian people must have a “clear political horizon.” She explained the official White House position that the West Bank must be governed together under a revitalized Palestinian Authority as a unified Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state. “When this conflict ends, Hamas cannot control Gaza, and Israel must be secure. Palestinians need a hopeful political horizon, economic opportunity, and freedom. And the region, more broadly, must be integrated and prosperous. And we must — we must work toward that vision,” Harris said. The Palestinian Authority was formed in the 1990s to run areas in Gaza and the West Bank as part of the region’s peace plan. However, it was expelled by Hamas in 2006. Israel helped create Hamas, financing the militant Islamist group as a “counterweight” to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose corruption trial just resumed, subscribed to a political philosophy of backing Hamas to create a rift with the Palestinian Authority to prevent the option of a two-state solution. Galit Distel-Atbaryan, former Israeli Minister of Information and currently serving member of the Knesset for the Likud party, explained Netanyahu’s willingness to pay a price by supporting Hamas: “Every home needs a balcony, and Israel is a home. The balcony of this home is Samaria… if Hamas crumbles, Mahmoud Abbas may rule the strip. If he rules it, voices on the left will encourage negotiations, a political settlement, and a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as well… this is the real reason Netanyahu doesn’t annihilate Hamas, everything else is bulls---.” The Biden administration’s proposal for two self-governing states between the waters of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea potentially put it on a collision course with Israel’s ruling party. State Department personnel have already faced resistance from Netanyahu, who remains opposed to the Palestinian Authority having any role in Gaza, according to unnamed Biden administration officials who spoke with POLITICO. Israeli officials, the sources said, are unwilling to discuss anything other than the current war, precipitated by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Netanyahu’s recent public statements have reiterated as much. "There isn't going to be in Gaza a civilian authority that teaches its children to hate Israel and to destroy Israel," he said during a weekend press conference as reported by Axios. "We can't have [in Gaza] an authority that pays families of terrorists...and it can't be an authority that the person who is heading it hasn't condemned the Oct. 7 massacre," he added, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "There needs to be something different." “We’re stuck,” the State Department official told POLITICO. “There’s a strong policy preference for the PA to play a governing role in Gaza, but it has significant legitimacy and capability challenges.” Key parts of the plan include a boost to security-related aid and a more substantive role for the U.S. Security Coordinator, which has advised Palestinian security forces. “Ultimately, we want to have a Palestinian security structure in post-conflict Gaza,” a senior Biden administration official told POLITICO. Sabri Saidam, an influential member of the Fatah Central Committee, says that what now matters most is a fresh commitment from the U.S. to provide Palestinians a real prospect for an independent state. “The marginalization of the Palestinians by the United States, the cutting of funds and successive right-wing Israeli governments have all led to this desperately dangerous situation,” Mr. Saidam told The New York Times. “Will the U.S. administration be serious this time?” “Any political solution that brings a Palestinian state into being will be a soothing factor,” he said. “But if we go back to ‘a process,’ to empty talks, to lack of seriousness, to another round of photo ops, this is not going to lead us anywhere.”The Biden administration is planning for postwar Gaza and West Bank that will be governed together with a revitalized Palestinian Authority, according to both public and private statements from administration officials.
