The Palestinian leadership is looking with much anxiety toward 2017. The year is perceived as a time when the patience of its people regarding statehood will run out. It will be 50 years of the occupation, with no end in sight. Internationally, it will be a year dominated by a transition toward a new US administration headed by Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Palestinian US experts are giving thought as to how to interact with Washington in the two possible scenarios.
An official in the entourage of PLO Executive Secretary Saeb Erekat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian leadership will not agree to restart process talks for a two-state solution, even informally, from any new baseline. “Washington knows our position on all issues, as conveyed to US Secretary of State John Kerry. The PLO will engage in negotiations after a new administration is in place only on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, with a settlement freeze and with a prisoner release, as it was related to John Kerry. Whenever a new administration takes over, or whenever there is a new government in Israel, we are asked to start the process anew. That will not be the case this time around.”
In Israel, the opposite is true. A confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the government is looking forward to a new administration, whatever the outcome of the elections, given the poor relationship between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu. The confidant said there is not only a fierce disagreement on policy, but a real ideological divide between the two leaders, given, for instance, Obama’s preference for collective diplomacy and his reluctance to have US troops on the ground in Iraq or directly attack in Syria.
As for the issue of the outcome of the US presidential election, the confidant said Netanyahu is neutral. He respects Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, though he has had sharp disagreements with her regarding settlement policy. The confidant implied that while Republican nominee Donald Trump is an unknown, Netanyahu is closer ideologically to Trump's party.
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