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Will Moscow save the West Bank from annexation?

The Palestinian leadership is looking to Russia for help resisting Israel's annexation plans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 14, 2018. Pool/Yuri Kadobnov via REUTERS - RC11D68C34E0

Palestinian efforts against Israel's plans to annex Palestinian territory are being exercised on three levels. Locally, Palestinians have severed all relations, including security coordination, with Israel and the United States. Regionally, Jordan has been spearheading the Arab response to the Israeli plan, including efforts by the only two Arab countries that have a peace plan with Israel: Jordan and Egypt.

On the international level, Palestinian energy has been largely focused on three members of the Middle East Quartet — the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. The focus is on these three instead of the Quartet as a whole, according to Palestinian Ambassador in Moscow Abdel Hafiz Nofel, because the remaning member of the Quartet — the Americans — have repeatedly derailed attempts by the others within the framework of the Quartet to provide a unified international position.

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