A senior Palestinian Authority official expressed “concern” on Tuesday that the United States was “replicating” what he said has been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of bolstering Hamas at the expense of the PA.

The remarks to The Times of Israel came two days after US envoy Jared Kushner held a rare in-person meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt, before proceeding to Jerusalem for a sit-down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kushner did not stop in Ramallah to see anyone from the PA, which the Trump administration has largely sidelined.

“The PA can play a critical role in stabilizing the situation in Gaza and the West Bank and should not be ignored,” the Palestinian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official recalled how successive Netanyahu governments authorized Qatari payments to Hamas, which allowed for the bolstering of the terror group, even as Jerusalem gradually disengaged from the more moderate PA, which supports a two-state solution, and took steps to delegitimize it.

The official was careful not to explicitly criticize the Trump administration, with Ramallah apparently recognizing it has limited leverage at the moment.

Kushner was asked in a portion of a Fox News interview that aired on Tuesday about the possibility of the US recognizing a Palestinian state and dismissed the idea for the time being, while knocking the PA.

“Before we can even talk about the political nature of a state, what we want to see is that the Palestinians can govern themselves. With the PA, they fall very, very short on the standard we need for somebody who can qualify for a state,” he said. “They have a lot of reforms they need to do, which the Saudis, the French and everyone agrees with us on. Governments are working on what the right set of reforms are.”

“Whether they’ll actually do it is another question.........

© The Times of Israel