What is Palestinian Authority?

Smotrich has withheld Palestinian customs revenues for 10 months in violation of the Paris Protocols, cutting off a primary PA funding stream.

“Smotrich has refused for the past 10 months now to give any customs revenues to the PA despite their legal obligations to do so under the Paris Protocols.”

Two Israeli commercial banks stopped processing Palestinian banking transactions because Smotrich repeatedly refused to extend immunity letters, making the risk calculus untenable for the banks.

“There are two Israeli commercial banks that have done it cuz Smotrich kept playing around with not extending the immunity letters. The basically risk analysis from those banks is they don't want to do this anymore. And so, they've now basically stopped doing that.”

Alkhatib explains the West Bank vs. Gaza divergence using a South Korea/North Korea analogy: the PA's institution-building track went unsupported while Hamas's authoritarian track hardened, and Israeli settlement expansion undermined the moderates.

“I think there wasn't enough support for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to turn that territory that area into essentially a South Korea as Gaza was becoming a North Korea.”

Hamas's strategy to co-opt American universities traces back to a single hotel room in Philadelphia after the Oslo Accords, when Hamas was excluded from the Palestinian Authority arrangement, documented by FBI laser microphone surveillance.

“The design to co-opt American universities can be traced to a single hotel room in Philadelphia by the FBI listening with laser microphones where after the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority with Arafat is brought in and Hamas is considered left out in the cold.”