For decades, US policy in the Middle East was dominated by the presupposition that relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors had to be predicated on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. For the Palestinian Authority, any discussion of this subject had to be based on the precondition of Jerusalem as their capital. In his characteristic style, President Trump proved this to be entirely false, graphically and glaringly disproving the conventional Washington wisdom by sidestepping the Palestinian imposed Gordian knot and presenting the world with the new Middle East, one in which the Arab nations are rushing to be next in line to sign a peace agreement with Israel. This inevitably led to Palestinian consternation but according to some experts, Trump’s approach has led the Palestinians to join in this wave of peace by expressing willingness to renew the negotiations with Israel that were stalled under Obama. But since a Biden White House will return Washington to its old and dysfunctional norms, the success of Trump’s Middle East Policy will undoubtedly be attributed to the perpetrator of the original bad policy: Joe Biden.

MEMRI: Palestinians’ Quiet Return to Negotiations

A recent report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) investigated the shift in attitude in the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and, most recently, Morocco. 

The report noted that the Palestinian Authority contacted the Biden camp directly after the election, expressing their willingness to restart negotiations with Israel “based on International Law and under the auspices of the UN.”

This expression of intent marked a major shift in PA policy which had cut off direct negotiations with Israel in 2014 based on their insistence on the precondition of Israel agreeing to withdraw entirely to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines agreed with Jordan and establishing Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.

Negotiations between Israel and the PA stagnated even more under the Trump administration after the US president expressed ambivalence towards the “Two-State Solution”, i.e. the creation of an independent Palestinian state inside Israel ethnically cleansed of Jews with Jerusalem as its capital. 

“I’m looking at two states and one state,” President Trump said in February 2017. “I can live with either one.” 

This was further emphasized in December of that year when he officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 

In stark contrast to this prolonged policy, the MEMRI report cited a speech written by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and read in the UN by the PA Ambassador, Riyad Mansour at the beginning of this month, in which Abbas proposed “to convene an international conference for Palestinian-Israeli peace”. 

The timing is intentional as the PA has already begun discussions with the Biden team to build the “new American vision” of the Middle East. PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani told the media, “The [initial] signs are encouraging… Ahead of the election we opened up a communication channel with Joe Biden’s transition team, and it is clearly possible to build on the new American vision.”

PA: Rebuilding Bridges to Arab Allies of Israel

Initially met with disapproval by the PA, the report stated that the PA has stopped criticizing and condemning the countries that are normalizing relations with Israel.

“[The criticism[] not only failed to stop the normalization process but caused the PA to become isolated in the Arab arena,” MEMRI wrote. “Apparently heeding the criticism by Palestinian elements against its blustering and aggressive reaction to the peace agreements, the PA has decided to soften its tone towards the countries that signed them in a bid to improve its relations with these countries and also signal to the Biden administration that it is a pragmatic and relevant element that must not be excluded from political processes in the region.”

“This is not to say that the PA leadership has stopped expressing opposition to the agreements with Israel,” the report stated. “But it is doing so through quiet diplomatic channels. According to a report on the Elaph website, the PA is seeking to prevent further countries from signing such agreements…”

This change in PA policy will be solidified with the return of the PA ambassadors to those countries.

Return to Oslo Cooperation With Israel

According to the report, the PA is quietly returning to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 that created the Palestinian Authority with the intent of establishing a  Palestinian political entity. The PA rejected the Oslo Accords last year, renouncing any and all obligations included in the accords.

“As part of its bid to return to the track of negotiations with Israel under the new U.S. administration, the PA announced the renewal of the military and civilian coordination with Israel, which was stopped in May 2020 as part of the Palestinian leadership’s decision to suspend the Oslo Agreements in response to Israeli announcements of plans to annex parts of the West Bank,” MEMRI wrote. 

This policy turned out to be destructive to the PA, limiting the operations of their security forces and creating increased economic hardship during the already difficult pandemic.