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Top Biden Official Visits Israel, Calls for Strengthening Palestinian Leadership to Prevent Collapse

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State Department

DEBORAH BRAND

21 Nov 2022

A senior Biden administration official visiting Israel this week urged Jerusalem to strengthen its security relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA), amid rising concerns the PA will disintegrate.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, also told senior Israeli security officials and military brass the Biden administration expects Israel to take measures to boost the flailing Palestinian economy, an official close to the matter told the Times of Israel.

Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security agency, this week warned Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu earlier that if the PA collapses, it could greatly harm Israel’s security.

As it stands, PA security forces are already finding it more and more difficult to enforce law and order in the West Bank, in particular the terror hubs of Nablus and Jenin, where the IDF has carried out extensive raids in recent weeks, killing several terrorists who were behind a wave of attacks against Israelis.

While PA security forces have assisted in thwarting terror attacks and have made several arrests, their cooperation with Israel has been heavily criticized – both by many on the Palestinian side, who believe the joint efforts constitutes “normalization” with Israel, and by some right wing Israelis, who don’t trust them.

Some members of the PA forces have turned out to be terrorists.

Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah deputy, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, admitted PA security forces were fighting alongside terrorists.

A month earlier, an Israeli soldier was murdered by a member of the authority’s intelligence forces.

Religious Zionism party head Bezalel Smotrich, who won 14 seats in the recent election, has called to stop the security cooperation and to dismantle the PA.

He has also said that as part of the new government – in which he hopes to serve as defense minister – he will work to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

U.S. ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides this week came out against appointing party head Smotrich as the next defense minister.

Both Ramallah and Washington have maintained that security coordination cannot take place in a vacuum and must be complemented with steps that bolster the PA’s economic and diplomatic stature — steps that Israel will likely be less willing to take once Netanyahu’s expected right-religious government takes power.

Eyeing the role of defense minister is Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich, who has spoken in support of dissolving the PA and annexing large parts of the West Bank.