Israel Offers Economic Help to Palestinians, but Not Peace Talks

Israel is rushing to prop up the Palestinian Authority, promising loans, allowing infrastructure upgrades and holding high-level talks with West Bank leaders for the first time in years, in a bid to stem the growing influence of Hamas and keep a lid on violent unrest.

Taken together, the piecemeal initiatives amount to a new period of Palestinian engagement by an Israeli centrist coalition government attempting a reset on West Bank policies after a decade of frayed relations under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said the renewed dialogue isn’t meant to lay a foundation for peace talks, which were last held in 2014. Rather, Israeli officials say the efforts are designed to ease severe economic pain in the West Bank and ensure the survival of the Palestinian Authority, which is unpopular with its constituents but provides essential security assistance to Israel.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who has met twice with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, once in the West Bank and another time at his home in Israel, said last week that Israel’s security is at the heart of his meetings.

 “Ties with the Palestinian Authority strengthen the moderates and weaken our enemies, led by Hamas,” he told lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, last week.

Israel sees a major threat in the growing West Bank popularity of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip and has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel. Polls show Palestinian support for Hamas has grown since a violent conflict last May with Israel because it struck the country’s heartland with rockets, even though hundreds of Gazans died.

High-level discussions between Israeli officials and the Palestinian Authority hadn’t occurred for more than a decade under Mr. Netanyahu, who publicly threatened to annex West Bank territory for Israel. Israeli officials say there is an urgency to getting relations between Israeli government and Palestinian authorities back on track, particularly given the West Bank’s dire economic situation and Hamas’s gains.

On Sunday, Mr. Abbas said his government was engaging with Israel to ease problems that had accumulated in recent years but wanted greater concessions from Israel.

“This has not and will not be a substitute for our demands for a political solution in accordance with international resolutions to end the occupation,” said Mr. Abbas, speaking at a gathering of top Palestinian leaders.

The Palestinian engagement has drawn criticism from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which said the moves would compromise Israel’s security. Others say the Palestinian Authority has delegitimized itself by paying money to the families of those who wind up in Israeli jails—payments the Palestinians say are a social safety net for families that have lost their breadwinners..

An important Israeli initiative for the West Bank has been the issuance or renewal of several thousand identity cards for Palestinians. With military checkpoints dotting most major roads between cities and towns, Israeli-approved identity cards are essential for Palestinians to travel anywhere in the country.

Israel has likewise permitted Palestinian cellular providers to upgrade their networks to 4G capabilities. Israel also promised a loan of 500 million shekel, equivalent to $160 million, to make up for tax revenues Israel takes away from the Palestinian Authority for the money it gives the family members of those in Israeli jails.

The Israelis’ Palestinian posture is largely endorsed by the Biden administration, echoing parts of the Trump administration’s focus on economic progress for Palestinians over a separate Arab state. A senior State Department official said longstanding U.S. policy seeking a Palestinian state hadn’t changed, “but as making progress towards that goal is difficult at this time, it is vital that we support tangible, practical steps toward improving Palestinian lives.”

Neither Israelis nor Palestinians are eager for the resumption of U.S.-led peace talks. Palestinians have largely lost hope that Washington’s involvement helps their cause, while Israelis, particularly under Mr. Netanyahu, have preferred to address security concerns as they arise, a policy widely described as “mowing the grass,” instead of addressing overarching political solutions.

For the Israeli government, the Palestinian initiatives are aimed at helping rein in West Bank discontent that has boiled over in violence in recent months. That violence has involved attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem as well as an uptick in armed confrontations between Israeli settlers who live in the West Bank and Palestinians.

“In the West Bank we have a real interest in the Palestinian Authority remaining the prominent power,” said Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. “We need to talk economics with the Palestinians, because we need stability.”

 “But how long things remain stable without peace talks and addressing politics is a different question,” he said.

Polling data shows the Palestinian Authority regained considerable support after its popularity hit recent lows last year when longstanding problems, like corruption allegations, bad services and alleged coziness with Israel were compounded by its decision to cancel parliamentary elections last April. The West Bank hasn’t held elections since 2006.

At the same time, nearly two thirds of Palestinians no longer see a two-state solution as a viable way forward, polls show. Some Palestinians say they are angry with the Palestinian Authority, set up some 30 years ago as a temporary bridge to an eventually independent government overseeing its own state.

Some Palestinians say they are eager for any measures that could make their lives even marginally easier, even if it comes from Israel.

In Ramallah, the West Bank’s political hub, Issa Husary, 61 years old, who runs a hardware store, accuses Israel of drawing out the peace process while boosting settlements, the Jewish villages scattered throughout the West Bank that complicate peace talks. But he says fresh identification cards would help his nephew’s wife, who moved to the West Bank from Gaza in 2010 and hasn’t managed to receive a renewed ID since.

 “I don’t want to but I am forced to say thank you to the Israelis,” he said. “They are the ones with the power; we have nothing.”

Others are skeptical.

“Do you think they’re offering the permits to everyone?” asked Yasmin Mahmoud, 30, a student in Ramallah. “You have to prove that you’re a good Palestinian and being a good Palestinian means not being involved in politics or expressing your views too loudly.”