The White House Believes It “honest brokers of this process here” Regarding “prospect of a Gaza” Do Muslim-Led Nations Think The Same Given U.S. Support Thus Far For Israel’s Destruction Of Gaza?

The White House
Washington DC
14 December 2023

Excerpts:

BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ON NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR JAKE SULLIVAN’S TRAVEL TO ISRAEL

Via Teleconference

Q    Thank you, Brett.

Q    Thanks very much.  Just to follow up on the questions about the Palestinian Authority’s preparations for governing Gaza once the war is over, can you give a sense of whether you expect that President Abbas would be appointing a vice president as part of a reform effort to do that governing?  And do you have any sense of who the candidates would be for that role?  There's been a handful of names already floated.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks, Jeff.  That's just really not for me to say in terms of how the Palestinian Authority decides to reorganize itself or appoint an emergency cabinet, or a number of other initiatives that have been on the table, particularly as we begin to emerge from this crisis.  But there are a number of ideas coming, particularly from the leadership in Ramallah itself, which again, I think, are encouraging but focus first and foremost on the West Bank.

And, look, Gaza is going to take time.  I mean, let's just be honest.  As I mentioned throughout the call here, Hamas has been in charge, really, for almost two decades, since 2006.  And so, the prospect of a Gaza no longer governed by Hamas opens up a lot of possibilities but also a lot of difficulties.  And it's going to take time, it's going to take thought, it's going to take cooperation from a number of regional partners.  It's going to take some, I think, very clear-eyed and clear-headed thinking from the Israeli side and also from the Palestinian side.

And we, as kind of the honest brokers of this process here, as the United States, are working with everybody and kind of collecting the ideas and looking at different ways forward, with the caveat that, again, we're still in the middle of the main phase of Israel's military campaign, the high-intensity clearance operations, which ultimately over time will shift to a lower-intensity phase, but we're not there yet.