For many years, US secretaries of state have been involved up to their necks in attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and expeditions to the Middle East were routine. All their attempts were met with great disappointment. Ever since the collapse of the latest peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in April 2014, when the Washington-Jerusalem relationship is at its lowest point, new winds are blowing in the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In the past and generally behind closed doors, the Palestinians tended to fault the United States for being an unfair broker with a historic tendency to favor its ally, Israel. But in recent months, the United States has been going to great lengths to strengthen the PA in general through financial support, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in particular with public declarations. It acts out of the unreasonable assumption that the lack of a diplomatic horizon might bring the collapse of the PA. Or if not, it might at least bring about the emergence of extremist elements, which would sound the death knell of the ''US vision'' to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ever since the talks failed, and after the end of Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip in August 2014, the US Consulate staff have been busy mapping out Palestinian projects in the PA that need immediate financial aid. These are mainly civilian projects such as hospitals, schools and infrastructure that Abbas’ PA is not capable of maintaining or reconstructing, due to the PA’s shaky financial circumstances.

One expression of this mapping work — continued for a few months — was US Secretrary of State John Kerry’s statement in Cairo on Oct. 12 regarding the transfer of emergency financial aid to the PA in the West Bank, which was bundled with the US donation for reconstructing the Gaza Strip. A statement by the US State Department detailed the US aid: $212 million was donated for Gaza renovation; $100 million was donated as urgent assistance to the PA’s budget, part of which is earmarked for reconstruction of the health care system in East Jerusalem. An additional $37 million will be donated to strengthen the PA’s institutions, and additional contributions of about $100 million will be transferred to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The express directive is that the donated money is designated both to the welfare institutions in Gaza, as well as to the West Bank residents who need aid due to the PA’s fragile circumstances.