Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suggested to the United States, Egypt, Jordan, and other parties that the negotiations with Israeli parties begin with “border demarcation,” a well-informed Palestinian source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The source added that President Abbas would present his suggestions to the Israeli Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, during their meeting next week in Ramallah.
The president will inform Gantz that confidence-building measures and support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) are in no way a substitute for political negotiations, warning that he will resort to measures if the Israeli government does not engage in such talks.
The Palestinian source confirmed that Abbas would inform Gantz that the plan he launched at the UN would be implemented if the current Israeli government insisted on following a path away from political negotiations.
In September, Abbas launched an initiative during which he gave Israel has one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, threatening to withdraw recognition of Israel.
The Central Council, the highest Palestinian legislative body, will discuss various options if it holds its upcoming meeting at the beginning of next month.
Abbas will meet Gantz next week, accompanied by the Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej.
Frej said he believes that the meeting aims to strengthen the PA and calm tensions amid a wave of attacks.
The meeting, which will be Gantz and Abbas’ second meeting, is also expected to address security and economic cooperation.
In a meeting that aimed to break the deadlock in relations, Abbas first met with Gantz in late August at the presidential headquarters in the central West Bank.
After the meeting, Israel authorized permits to work in Israel for an additional 15,000 Palestinian workers. It allowed the Palestinian territories to get 4G cellular service. It also agreed to grant tens of thousands of Palestinians the right to family reunification.
But Gantz ignored requests to return the bodies of dozens of Palestinians held by Israel, stop storming Palestinian areas classified as A, work to stop settler violence in the West Bank, and reformulate the Paris Agreements regulating economic relations between the two parties.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that his government strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and that state-like entities do not succeed.
Bennett also believes that no one in the region believes it is possible to go to a peace negotiation process.
Sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that regional countries, along with the US administration, sent messages to Abbas stating that the current situation does not allow the launch of a political process due to the composition of the current Israeli government.
As a result, Abbas decided to present an initiative based on launching negotiations or escalation.
“I had a conversation this week with Gantz… and I believe in the coming days there will be an interesting meeting,” Frej told Channel 12 news.
Asked if he meant another meeting between the defense minister and Abbas, Frej said the two may “meet again.”
The meeting would likely deal with proposals for security and economic cooperation aimed at helping the PA govern in the West Bank and weakening the rival Hamas group.
Abbas is trying to push a political solution forward, and for that, he visited Russia, Jordan, Qatar, and other countries.
Abbas also requested meetings with Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. However, it was not clear if Lapid would respond to the Egyptian request to meet Abbas and join Gantz on his visit to Ramallah.
Bennett has refused to meet with Abbas so far, considering that it is useless in the current circumstances.
