Even before being appointed the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine in 1919, Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) had become the foremost theorist of religious Zionism. Employing an innovative reading of Jewish mystical texts blended with various ideas from European thought, Kook developed a theological interpretation of history that he employed to show why his era was the appropriate time for a return to Zion. Yehudah Mirsky explains (free registration required):

In the kabbalistic doctrine of the [ten] s’firot [divine emanations], the tenth s’firah is the meeting place of divinity and the world; it is thus at one and the same time the Oral Torah (created by human interpretation [of the written text]), . . . the land of Israel, the [religious community] of Israel, and the immanent divine presence or Sh’khinah. This cluster of related mystical concepts was the lens through which [Kook] viewed nationalism and Zionism, and those developments shaped his new readings of Kabbalah. . . . [J]ust as the tenth s’firah is the repository for the spiritual energies of all the rest, the Jewish people are the repository for the spiritual energies of humanity, the “idealized distillation” of the history, beliefs, and ideals of the nation.

Contemporary nationalism was for Kook the vessel of the internally diverse spiritual life of mankind. “In our time, after the differentiation into nations, nobody can receive his spiritual influences outside of the garment of the specific channel of his nation.” But in keeping with his dialectical perspective, universal love must feature alongside national feeling in a God-saturated world. “Love of all creatures must live in the heart and soul, love for every individual, for all the nations.” Indeed, the existence of nations is only a waystation until the joining of all humanity in a single family.

When he called upon Hamas to end the war and release the hostages last week, the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas was also getting ready for a reshuffle within his regime. On Saturday, he appointed Hussein al-Sheikh deputy president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is intimately tied to the PA itself. Al-Sheikh would therefore succeed Abbas—who is eighty-nine and reportedly in ill health—as head of the PLO if he should die or become incapacitated, and be positioned to succeed him as head of the PA as well.

Al-Sheikh spent eleven years in an Israeli prison and, writes Maurice Hirsch, was involved in planning a 2002 Jerusalem suicide bombing that killed three. Moreover, Hirsch writes, he “does not enjoy broad Palestinian popularity or support.”

Still, by appointing Al-Sheikh, Abbas has taken a step in the internal reforms he inaugurated last year in the hope that he could prove to the Biden administration and other relevant players that the PA was up to the task of governing the Gaza Strip. Neomi Neumann writes:

Abbas’s motivation for reform also appears rooted in the need to meet the expectations of Arab and European donors without compromising his authority. On April 14, the EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas approved a three-year aid package worth 1.6 billion euros, including 620 million euros in direct budget support tied to reforms. Meanwhile, the French president Emmanuel Macron held a call with Abbas [earlier this month] and noted afterward that reforms are essential for the PA to be seen as a viable governing authority for Gaza—a telling remark given reports that Paris may soon recognize “the state of Palestine.”

In some cases, reforms appear targeted at specific regional partners. The idea of appointing a vice-president originated with Saudi Arabia.

In the near term, Abbas’s main goal appears to be preserving Arab and European support ahead of a major international conference in New York this June.