Abbas may be the last PA leader who believes in two states, warns potential successor
Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub praises Abbas and urges US to engage with him, looking to remain in the Palestinian Authority chief’s good graces while no new election is slated
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
AL-BIREH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas may be the last Palestinian leader who believes in a two-state solution and opposes violence as a means for bringing it about, a potential successor to the PA president told The Times of Israel in a recent interview.
Abbas “is the last founding pillar of the Palestinian national movement who believes in two things: making historic reconciliation [with Israel] based on the two-state solution [and] that blood-shedding should not be a choice to achieve [that goal],” said Jibril Rajoub, the secretary-general of Abbas’s Fatah party and a former head of the PA’s security forces.
Rajoub said that Fatah and most of the factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization still back a two-state solution, “but I don’t think anyone after Abu Mazen (Abbas) could have the courage… to lead [toward a] peace treaty.”
Accordingly, Rajoub urged the Trump administration to engage with the PA leader without delay. “Whether we like him or not, [Abbas] is still legitimate, and his baby remains settling this conflict through peaceful means.”
It is rare for PLO officials to criticize Abbas, but Rajoub’s decision to go out of his way to hail the PA president in a rare interview with an English-language news outlet pointed to his desire to remain in good standing with him.
While no elections are in the offing and the nearly 90-year-old Abbas has not named a successor, the 71-year-old Rajoub is often listed among those who could replace the PA president, given his strong positioning within Fatah along with other Palestinian factions.
Those factions include Hamas, which Rajoub said could be part of the Palestinian leadership if it accepts PLO obligations, including recognition of Israel and accepting “non-violence as a strategic choice.”
Implying an equivalence, he suggested those questioning whether Hamas should be included in Palestinian politics — particularly after the terror group’s atrocities on October 7, 2023 — were not treating Israeli hardliners with the same skepticism.
“What about the same crazy groups inside Israel? No one is asking about [Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich,” he claimed, referring to the two far-right party leaders whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu partnered with two years ago to form the government.
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Still, Rajoub denounced Hamas’s actions on October 7.
“I know that innocent people, including peace activists, along with women and children were killed that day. No one can support something like that,” said Rajoub, who is also the chairman of the Palestinian Football Association.
“However, the conflict did not start that day,” Rajoub argued, pointing to decades of “home demolitions, settlement building, humiliations and killing” of Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
He claimed that the uptick in these actions under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rule has led to an uptick in antisemitism outside of Israel, which has hit record levels in some Western countries following the October 7 attack and subsequent war in Gaza.
“Israelis are now instructed to remove their kippa when abroad,” Rajoub said. “Is this what they want?”
Pressed on calls for Palestinian political reform, given that the entire West Bank-based PA system is dominated by Abbas, Rajoub acknowledged that doing so was necessary and “in our national interest.”
The PA has not held elections in nearly 20 years, and Rajoub said such a step would be essential, adding that a future Palestinian state must uphold the values of “democracy and political pluralism under the principle of one authority, one law and one gun.”
“I think that we do need to make reforms… But the corruption in the PA is kindergarten compared to Mr. Bibi and his mafia,” he claimed, referencing the Israeli premier’s ongoing criminal trial.
“Still, we should not lose hope, and we should not give up” on the goal of mutual recognition, Rajoub maintained.
“Trust between us is zero. They have their reasons, and we have ours,” he continued, arguing that a third party is needed to move the parties in the right direction.
“The third party is the international community, but it should be led by the Americans,” Rajoub said. “The Americans are the only ones who can exert pressure on these Israelis.”
There was initial optimism in Ramallah that the US would be willing to play such a role in the lead-up to President Donald Trump’s return to office when his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, managed to coax Netanyahu into agreeing to a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas after months of deadlock.
But that feeling dissipated rather quickly, with Trump declaring his desire last month for the US to take over Gaza and permanently relocate all of its residents.
“It’s a shame for this administration to abuse the suffering of innocent people,” Rajoub said.
In the more immediate term, though, Washington is more focused on extending the ceasefire in Gaza through additional hostage-prisoner swaps between Israel and Hamas.
Rajoub has a unique perspective on this issue, as he was released from an Israeli prison during the 1980s through such a deal.
He spent 17 years in custody for violence against Israel. Rajoub said he used the time to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“My conclusion was that without making space for Israelis’ rational concerns… I can’t achieve my national aspirations,” Rajoub said.
“The Israelis — like the Palestinians — have the right to live in peace, in security, with normalizations… but within the internationally recognized borders,” he added, referring to the armistice lines prior to the 1967 Six-Day War.
Speaking to the kind of hostage deal that he would support, Rajoub said, “It should be everybody for everybody, so we can open a new chapter.”
