As former Vice President Joe Biden appears set for a victory against President Donald Trump in the US elections, the Palestinian presidential headquarters in Ramallah is in a quandary. Palestinian officials want to make a full-throated congratulatory statement to Biden, but they fear some sort of retribution from Trump during his lame-duck period before the official inauguration. In the end, the Palestinian presidency agreed to make a general public statement once the votes are in and Biden’s victory is official; the rest will be done in behind-the-scenes talks.
Palestinian officials are yearning to renew talks with Washington. President Mahmoud Abbas only decided to break with the Trump administration once he realized that all the preliminary talks with Trump and his team were only a cover to allow for a totally biased plan that began with the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the defunding of Jerusalem hospitals and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, and eventually the announcement of a proposed map for a Palestinian-Israel deal that showed Israel taking over 30% of the West Bank’s fertile Jordan Valley in return for spots in the Negev desert.
