When politicians meet in a private atmosphere at home, it indicates a special familiarity. It is even more unusual when two enemies rather than friends come together for such a tête-à-tête. The fact that Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz entertained Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his domicile in Rosh Haayin on Tuesday evening can safely be seen as a special gesture – but nothing more than that.
The Israeli government summed up the two and a half hour meeting afterwards in a meager three sentences, and there was no talk of peace. Only the Palestinian side reported that it had been discussed how a “political horizon” could be created for the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israelis limited themselves to speaking of a “discussion of some security and civil issues”.
The meeting is the continuation of a dialogue that Gantz began in August with a visit to Abbas in Ramallah. Abbas has not come to Israel for such a meeting for more than ten years. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored the Palestinian President wherever he could. The entire peace process has been idle since 2014.
The new Israeli government, in office since June, is making no move to resume this process. No consensus on this can be found within the heterogeneous coalition, which consists of right-wing, left-wing and an Arab party – and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett does not believe in the establishment of a Palestinian state as a matter of principle. But at least one has agreed on the lowest common denominator to make life easier for the Palestinians in the occupied territories. The motto: The conflict will not be resolved, but the points of conflict will be reduced as much as possible.
“Confidence-building measures in the economic and civil sector” were therefore also the focus of the meeting between Gantz and Abbas. Specifically, the Israelis promised to bail out the chronically clammy Palestinian Authority (PA) with 100 million shekels, the equivalent of around 28 million euros. The money is an advance from the tax and customs revenue that Israel collects for the Palestinians.
In addition, a total of 9,500 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are to be given secure residence rights. Several hundred Palestinian business people will be allowed to drive their cars to Israel in the future. A few dozen officials of the Palestinian Authority are issued with VIP passports by Israel. Abbas is also reported to have asked his host about the six Palestinian NGOs that Gantz declared terrorist groups in October despite international protests. However, there was no comment from the Israeli side.
With such rather small gestures, the Israeli government hopes to achieve two things. First: to strengthen Abbas, who is increasingly unpopular among the Palestinian population, against competition from the far more radical Hamas. Second: to stabilize the security situation in the occupied territories by strengthening cooperation with the autonomous authority. The situation there is currently tense. There have been several attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in recent weeks. In addition, there was an increasing number of violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.
The meeting between Gantz and Abbas was not only criticized by the usual suspects, that is, from Netanyahu’s Likud party and Hamas. Construction Minister Zeev Elkin also spoke up from the government camp. “I would not invite anyone into my house who pays salaries to the murderers of Israelis and who wants to bring me to justice for war crimes,” he said in a radio interview.