Granting the Palestinians statehood in the wake of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, would amount to the creation of a “Hamas state,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar charged on Wednesday, speaking hours after his U.S. counterpart endorsed the recognition of “Palestine.”
“In the current situation, establishing a Palestinian state will surely be a Hamas state,” Israel’s top diplomat told an Italian reporter who asked about U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks during a joint press briefing with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
Sa’ar added that “there is a reason why the Palestinian Authority didn’t make elections since 2005.”
A poll published inb December showed that nearly two-thirds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria prefer Hamas to be part of, or even lead, a governing body that would control the Strip after the current war with Jerusalem concludes.
“A Hamas state will not only not solve the conflict, but will deteriorate security, peace and stability of the region,” continued the diplomat. For the Palestinian Authority to become a possible peace partner, Ramallah must stop its practice of rewarding terrorists, Sa’ar said.
The Israeli foreign minister noted that the European Union previously failed to convince the P.A. to abolish its “pay for slay” policy, under which it disburses monthly stipends to terrorists and their relatives.
“If they will stop poisoning the minds of future generations, we might have a chance to go forward in a path for real peace,” Sa’ar concluded.
In what could be his final speech on the job, Blinken on Tuesday stated that Jerusalem “must embrace a time-bound, conditions-based path toward forming an independent Palestinian state.”
“Israel will have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed P.A.,” the Biden administration official claimed in the address, presenting his proposal for the “day after” the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.
The “capacity and legitimacy” of the P.A., which he described as the “only viable alternative” to the Iranian-backed terror group, has been undermined by the current government in Jerusalem, Blinken claimed.
“Israel continues to hold back P.A. tax revenues that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians—funds that belong to the Palestinians, and that the P.A. needs to pay people who provide essential services like health care and security in the West Bank, which is vital to Israel’s own security,” he said.
Jerusalem says the “pay-for-slay” policy only encourages terror and that Israel offsets an equivalent amount from taxes it collects for Ramallah.
Ramallah has been paying stipends for years, but the issue came under a spotlight following the murder of Taylor Force, a U.S. graduate student visiting Israel who was killed by a Palestinian who went on a stabbing rampage in Jaffa in 2018. Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which officially halted American aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as terror stipends were being paid out.
Blinken reiterated that Ramallah and international partners should “run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza, like banking, water, energy, health, civil coordination with Israel.”
The envisioned interim body would “hand over complete responsibility to a fully reformed P.A. administration as soon as it’s feasible,” he said.
Blinken’s proposal, which he said would be shared with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, also calls for the U.S. to train and arm more security forces in the Palestinian Authority, who would later take over from an interim force led by “partner nations.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, during a visit to Norway on Wednesday, told the Associated Press that it would “not be acceptable” for any entity other than the P.A. to govern Gaza.
Mustafa stated that “any attempt to consolidate the separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, or creating transitional entities, will be rejected.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during an interview in May that he prefers a rule by “Gazans who are not committed to our destruction, possibly with the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries that I think want to see stability and peace.”
