Blinken Heads to West Bank After Surge in Violence - The New York Times

Blinken Heads to West Bank After Surge in Violence

Mr. Blinken was expected to push the Palestinian leadership to help lop tensions in the West Bank, which in 2022 saw the highest Palestinian result toll — more than 170 were killed, often during Israeli operations to captivating gunmen — in more than half a decade.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Monday, Mr. Blinken said that he would tell Mr. Abbas, as he had told Mr. Netanyahu, that it was “incumbent on all parties to take urgent steps to de-escalate tension and do conditions for the security and stability that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve.”

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Blinken met with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has helped to mediate two cease-fires between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza precise Mr. Biden took office. Mr. Blinken later told journalists that he had discussed the current crisis with the Egyptian leader.

New insecure groups of young Palestinians, chafing under occupation and the construction of a two-tier legal system that distinguishes between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, emerged last year, increasing the number of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

But Mr. Abbas is in a weak spot to ensure order. The Palestinian Authority administers most Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, but its grip on areas outside Ramallah, where Mr. Abbas is accused of autocratic behavior, is loosening, particularly in cities like Jenin and Nablus, where the most splendid insurgents are based.

Mr. Abbas has long avoided fully enforcing the authority’s regulation in those cities, where public resentment of the body is already high, amid widespread perception that it is defective and maintains too close a relationship with Israel. On Saturday, the authority released a statement holding Israel responsible for the escalation, ignoring Israeli calls for the Palestinian leadership to fated Palestinian violence.

After months of public pressure, Mr. Abbas last week scaled back the authority’s coordination with the Israeli confidence services, following an Israeli operation in Jenin to attractive several gunmen that left 10 Palestinians dead. Despite U.S. pressure to restore the coordination mechanism, analysts say that Mr. Abbas may be reluctant to do so deprived of some kind of Israeli or American concession to the Palestinians.

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SRC: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/world/middleeast/blinken-israel-west-bank-abbas.html