The Biden administration is very concerned about the security anarchy in the West Bank and the increase in terrorism, which results from the weakening of the PA headed by chairman Abu Mazen.
About a month ago, President Biden sent Barbara Leaf, the US Assistant Secretary of State, to Israel and the PA, she met with senior officials in Israel and the PA to examine ways to strengthen the Palestinian Authority’s position and its security control over the West Bank.
Among other things, she met with Hussein a- Sheikh, a close associate of PLO chairman Abu Mazen and his designated successor.
Hussein al-Sheikh is the secretary general of the PLO excutive committee and also the minister of civil affairs in the PA and is responsible for relations with Israel.
A-Sheikh shares Abu Mazen’s opinion that the PA must be preserved at all costs and its collapse must be prevented because it is considered “the most important national achievement of the Palestinians in the last three decades”.
The PA , from the PLO’s point of view, is a temporary political entity on the way to establishing an independent Palestinian state.
Hussein al-Sheikh is considered the most powerful man in the PA after Abu Mazen, the Ministry of Civil Affairs that he heads has an influence on all areas of life in the West Bank, in fact he operates a “deep state mechanism” and every important issue goes through him.
He has close ties with the coordinator of operations in the territories General Rasan Alayan , with the head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar, with the CIA station in Israel and with the Prime Minister’s office and the Defense Minister’s office.
A few months ago he met with Yair Lapid before he assumed the position of Prime Minister of the transitional government.
President Biden, who recently visited Israel, met Hussein al-Sheikh in Bethlehem and according to senior PA sources, he gave the “green light” to PA chairman Abu Mazen to train Hussein al-Sheikh as his potential successor.
Now the Biden administration has come to understand that the deterioration of the security situation in the northern West Bank threatens the PA’s central government in Ramallah and it wants to strengthen it.
That is why the administration decided to invite Hussein al-Sheikh to Washington for meetings with senior officials to examine ways to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and its security control.
The fate of the Palestinian Authority and the future of the vision of the two-state solution will also be discussed.
Among other things, Hussein al-Sheikh is supposed to meet with Foreign Minister Tony Blinken, with National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan and with the head of the CIA William Burns.
After Hussein al-Sheikh’s departure to Washington, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen ordered his security forces “to enforce law and order” in all territories of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
American officials say that the administration is working quickly to try and achieve a calm in the security situation in the West Bank.
Hussein A. -Sheikh will demand that the U.S restrain Israel and prevent IDF forces from entering the city centers and refugee camps in the West Bank, which by definition according to the Oslo agreement are areas under the full sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority.
The American administration gives Hussein al-Sheikh legitimacy by actually inviting him to Washington as an official representative of the PA for political and security talks that have not taken place with the PA in the last five years, senior administration officials will try to examine him closely and see if he does indeed have the potential to be Abu Mazen’s possible successor.
The proposal of Hussein al-Sheikh
According to sources in the PA, Hussein al-Sheikh is expected to repeat to senior government officials in his talks in Washington the proposal he made to Israel a few weeks ago that the IDF forces refrain for a period of 4 months from entering the Palestinian city centers and the refugee camps in the West Bank in order to avoid friction with the Palestinian militants and create calm .
Hussein al-Sheikh’s proposal is similar to the proposal of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who, at the beginning of the first intifada in 1988, proposed to Israel to stop the military friction in the intifada for 6 months in order to create calm between it and the Palestinians.
It seems that history repeats itself, Israel at the time rejected the proposal of the President of Egypt and now it also rejects the proposal of Hussein al-Sheikh.
Senior security officials explained that the terrorist organizations may take advantage of the four months of the security truce to strengthen themselves and equip themselves with more weapons, something that will make it difficult for the IDF to operate later, in any case Israel is currently busy with the election process and does not believe that this is the right time to negotiate with the PA when there is no state of political stability in Israel.
Hussein al-Sheikh’s visit to Washington and his meetings with senior government officials will strengthen his position in the West Bank and at the top of Fatah. By the end of the year, the 8th conference of the Fatah movement will be convened to elect the movement’s leadership and institutions, and Hussein al-Sheikh plans to take advantage of it, with the assistance of Abu Mazen, in order to distance his political opponents from the leadership, led by Tawfik Al-Tirawi and Marwan Barghouti.
