PA leadership begs relevance while Israel and Trump shape Gaza’s future, sidelining failed Palestinian governance.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the long-time deputy to Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, held a high-profile meeting Sunday in Ramallah with a U.S. administration representative and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, now appointed by President Donald Trump to the new “peace board” shaping Gaza’s post-war reality.
According to the PA’s official Wafa news agency, the talks centered on Gaza’s future governance, the recent UN Security Council resolution, and the PA’s persistent demand to regain control over the Strip—despite its catastrophic history of corruption, mismanagement, and repeated rejection by the Palestinian public.
Al-Sheikh reportedly “praised President Trump’s position”—a striking reversal for PA leadership that has spent years attacking U.S. policy—acknowledging Washington’s central role in stabilizing the ceasefire, facilitating humanitarian aid, and initiating the first stage of Gaza’s reconstruction.
The meeting included the PA’s most powerful and entrenched operatives:
- Majed Faraj, PA General Intelligence chief
- Majdi al-Khaldi, Abbas’s diplomatic advisor
- Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Abbas’s longtime spokesperson
Their presence underscored the PA’s desperation to reclaim relevance after years of internal collapse, public distrust, and growing irrelevance in Gaza—where Hamas violently ousted them in 2007 and continues to operate as Iran’s primary terror proxy.
Behind the scenes, Israel and the U.S. maintain that any post-war Gaza framework must guarantee demilitarization, Israeli security control, and the complete dismantling of Hamas’s military and governing apparatus—conditions the PA has historically been unable or unwilling to enforce.
While the PA publicly praises Trump’s involvement, its growing anxiety reflects a larger truth:
for the first time in decades, Gaza’s future is being shaped without Palestinian factions dictating the terms.
