BICOM

The Palestinian Authority (PA) approaches the end of 2020 facing significant challenges. Israeli application of sovereignty/annexation of the West Bank is now off the agenda, and the incoming Biden administration offers an opportunity to reset Palestinian-American relations after the troubled Trump years. But ties with Arab neighbours are deteriorating and final-status talks with Israel are unlikely to be renewed in the short-to-medium term. In this context, the PA finds itself at a strategic crossroads, poised between two divergent and likely mutually exclusive options: Inter- Palestinian reconciliation on the one hand, and outreach towards the Biden administration on the other. Even more challenging is that neither option offers the realistic potential of significant breakthroughs.

This briefing sets out the ‘state of play’ in the Palestinian arena following the presidential election of Joe Biden before detailing the two strategic options currently being pursued by the PA leadership and evaluating their efficacy.

The briefing is available as a PDF below

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