April 6, 2021 | The Hill
Biden-backed anti-terror law complicates US-Palestinian ties
April 6, 2021 | The Hill
Biden-backed anti-terror law complicates US-Palestinian ties
Excerpt
The State Department is developing a policy of engagement toward the Palestinian Authority (PA). The shift comes as the Palestinians plan for legislative elections on May 22 — their first since 2006 — in which the terrorist group Hamas appears likely to participate. While the Biden administration has not acknowledged it yet, congressionally imposed restrictions that President Biden himself helped author as a senator may complicate his administration’s efforts to restore diplomatic contacts. The provision of financial aid may be even more complicated.
The political conditions within the PA today are eerily similar to those prior to the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, which pitted the ruling Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas against the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas. The election yielded Hamas a majority in the PLC.
The results sparked a crisis.
Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (@FDD), where Matthew Zweig, a former congressional staffer and State Department official, is a senior fellow. Follow them on Twitter @JSchanzer and @MatthewZweig1. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.