Sensing the despair in Palestinian public opinion, pragmatic officials in the PLO are contemplating a new interim policy move for 2017 to prevent an armed intifada and to keep alive the national Palestinian positions on permanent status. The idea is to launch a Palestinian initiative for a three-year interim agreement that would lead to permanent status.
A senior PLO official who participated in the Oslo Accord and other peace negotiations told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian leadership is fully aware of what a challenge it will be to achieve immediate statehood based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the capital, especially with the expected change in US positions by the Donald Trump administration.