US reaches out to Palestinian leaders many angrily reject

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
May 24, 2021

JERUSALEM (AP) — After weeks of unrest and a devastating 11-day war in Gaza, the U.S. and the international community plan to engage with the Palestinians to revive peace efforts.

But when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits on Tuesday, he will meet with Palestinian leaders who were sidelined by the protests and outmaneuvered by the militant Hamas group — and who seem to be more despised by Palestinians than at any time in their long reign.

The Palestinian Authority is no closer to statehood than it was when Mahmoud Abbas, now 85, was elected president in 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat, and the Palestinians are far more deeply divided. Abbas called off the first elections in 15 years last month, when it looked like his splintering Fatah party would suffer an embarrassing defeat.

However, the PA maintains close security ties with Israel and is deeply invested in the idea of a two-state solution. Internationally, that’s seen as the only way to resolve the conflict, even though there have been no substantive peace talks in more than a decade.

The Islamic militant group Hamas won a landslide victory in the last elections in 2006 and was poised to do well again. But it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and is blacklisted as a terrorist organization. The protests in Jerusalem and elsewhere are mostly leaderless.

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