Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett followed through on his promise to US President Joe Biden at their White House meeting on Aug. 27 to improve conditions for the Palestinians and de-escalate political tensions. These goodwill gestures, including $155 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), have so far fallen flat. What are considered compromised or halfway measures have given no political bounces for Bennett and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who are boxed in by domestic politics.
Gantz meeting with Abbas backfires for Bennett …
Israel announced a series of what it called "civil steps" to ease conditions for Palestinians, including expanding the fishing zone near Gaza; permitting an additional 5,000 Palestinian merchants to operate in Israel; and allowing more construction materials and an additional 1.3 billion gallons of water into Gaza, as Rina Bassist reports.
Most dramatically — and controversially, it turns out — Bennett dispatched Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz to the West Bank town of Ramallah on Aug. 29, just two days after the prime minister's meeting with US President Joe Biden, for the first high-level Israeli meeting with Abbas in years.
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