The State Department wants to open a consulate to the Palestinians there despite Israel’s objections.
By Eugene Kontorovich, WSJ Oct. 25, 2021 6:34 pm ET
The biggest diplomatic spat between Israel and the U.S. in recent memory is brewing over the Biden administration’s insistence on opening a consulate to conduct diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and locating it in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. Despite vociferous Israeli protest, the State Department has repeatedly said it would push forward with opening a consulate anyway, and Secretary Antony Blinken will personally lead the effort.
The U.S. Embassy to Israel is already in Jerusalem, and it has a consular department that provides services to Palestinians. Opening a separate, independent diplomatic mission would undermine a longstanding bipartisan policy of treating Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of Israel.
The consulate plan is a way to undo in part President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem without paying the political price of fully repudiating a move that had broad support even among Democrats. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh understands this and recently crowed that Mr. Blinken’s consulate is a stepping stone to a recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem.
Under settled international law, Israel’s consent is required for any diplomatic mission to be opened on its territory. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Gideon Saar have all forcefully rejected the idea, as has the opposition Likud party. Jerusalem is one of the few issues that unite Israelis across the political spectrum.
The State Department won’t take no for an answer. After Mr. Lapid made Israel’s opposition clear, Mr. Blinken said: “We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians”—a clear démarche to Jerusalem to acquiesce or face consequences. This contempt for Israel’s government is extraordinary.
When Mr. Trump in 2017 recognized Jerusalem as being in Israel and subsequently moved the U.S. Embassy there, he implemented the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, enacted with massive bipartisan support. That put to rest an absurd and anachronistic U.S. policy that treated Jerusalem as not being located in Israel at all, a legacy of an abortive 1947 U.N. initiative to make it an “international city.”
The U.S. did have a consulate in Jerusalem before the embassy move, which was opened in 1844 during the Ottoman Empire. After the creation of the state of Israel, the consulate functioned separately from the embassy in Tel Aviv. The Trump administration closed the consulate in March 2019 because its existence was inconsistent with the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
That’s why anti-Israel radicals like Rep. Ilhan Omar are pushing hard for the new consulate: It would be a step back to the pre-recognition status quo. Another sign that this is about more than reorganizing diplomatic office space is that the consul general would report not to the U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem but directly to Foggy Bottom—reinforcing the message that Jerusalem isn’t really in Israel.
The old consulate wasn’t established as a mission to the Palestinians, while its potential successor comes with that explicit agenda. As the Israel Policy Forum, a liberal think tank, recently explained, opening the consulate would “reflect U.S. recognition of the Palestinian desire to have a capital there”—in Israel’s capital.
The old consulate never needed Israel’s formal approval, as it predated the establishment of modern Israel. Now, Israel must agree. It fears that doing so would change the trajectory begun when the U.S. put its embassy in Jerusalem. Instead of countries taking America’s lead, as some have already done, by opening diplomatic missions to Israel in Jerusalem, they would insist on opening two parallel missions. If Jerusalem becomes Ramallah’s de facto Embassy Row, Israeli protests about their sole claim to the city would ring hollow.
Mr. Blinken has indicated that he will redouble pressure on Israel in November, after some crucial votes—Israel’s passage of a budget and the Senate confirmation of Mr. Biden’s ambassadorial nominee, Thomas Nides. Democrats previously insisted they weren’t hostile to Israel, only to then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If that were true, they wouldn’t seek to bully the centrist coalition that replaced him.
Washington may reckon that Israel’s new leaders hate Mr. Netanyahu more than they love Jerusalem, and thus the coalition won’t fall apart if the U.S. forces Messrs. Bennet and Lapid into submission. This is likely a miscalculation. But U.S. senators who don’t wish to leave a question mark hanging over Israeli control of Jews’ holiest city should demand that the State Department shelve the consulate plan before an ambassador is confirmed.
Mr. Kontorovich is a professor and the director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Scalia Law School.
@peloni
“These men mean to have a nuclear Iran and empower the Arabs with a Pal state carved from further Jewish lands, including Jerusalem”
You are absolutely right but it is not only “these men”, that’s why it is useless to rely on Congress, the good will of the American people (which will soon be gone because of the coming economic collapse), etc.
I keep posting the same thing which explains it – could you, please, read it this time?
The info is not the latest but shows a clear pattern:
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/hirally.htm
http://www.hirhome.com/iraniraq/plo-iran2.htm
http://hirhome.com/iraniraq/ITAM-conf-eng.htm
Blinken, Biden and Company are trying to put Jerusalem back in play for their Pal buddies and reverse Trump’s accomplishment of simply following USA law and putting the Embassy in Jerusalem.
Behind the scenes Israel is trying to thwart the consulate. They are trying to do this without a public confrontation which would not benefit Israel nor Biden. Some involved are confident on this score but the game is not over while Biden is POTUS. They may back off but I doubt that they will ever publicly admit that they are not going to put a consulate for Pals back in Jerusalem. Right now they are testing the Israeli resolve on the matter.
@retired22
Absolutely!
Blinken is doing his job – what is required of him as an employee of the American government – he is carrying out his government’s wishes.
Your comparison with Hitler’s plans for the Sudetenland is apt.
I would add another comparison – further down the line, in the conquered European territories, the Germans established the Jewish councils in the ghettos (Jewish council – Judenrat) so that a few of the Nazis’ actions against the Jews would be done with the Jewish hands.
So it is not coincidental that the people appointed to help push Israel into the sea are always or nearly always Jews.
I am wondering whether the US will go as far as making a real physical attempt to build the consulate in East Jerusalem without Israel’s permission, and what will happen then.
I hope Israel’s response won’t be the same as Czechoslovakia’s was in 1938 – Czhechoslovakia survived the WWII as a country (minus its Jews) but for Israel’s continued existence this is a real life or death decision.
YES – uness there is a change in 2022, the US will need a miracle to survive as a world leader of ANY calibre.
No surprises for anyone paying attention. These Radical elements who have taken hold of the US govt have no need of public opinion because they literally pull their votes out of thin air – they calculate an expected victory amount needed and if the figures are short, they halt everything, recalculate and boom, the rig is re-rigged. But they didn’t steal the control of the greatest power on the planet for to do nothing with it. They have an agenda, even as they crow support for the Jewish State and the Jewish people, and we should be more clever than to soak up banter as significant support. The agenda that will be pursued is coming from those placed in the positions to pursue it. Does anyone think that Malley is leading by accident. If so look at the entire team put in place by these radicals. Joan Swirsky did a very nice peek into these matters and Ted has previously shared her analysis:
https://www.israpundit.org/joes-jews-all-hate-jews-and-israel/
and here is a bit more
https://www.israpundit.org/more-about-joe-and-the-jews/
These men mean to have a nuclear Iran and empower the Arabs with a Pal state carved from further Jewish lands, including Jerusalem, and that means ignoring the Israeli’s weak cries of opposition to the American plans on each of these topics, which will be no difficulty for these radicals. Creating an international incident would be nothing new for these Radicals – please do recall the many lessons of Afghanistan. Mr. Kontorovich is quite correct that Israel should sidestep these Radicals and pursue the support of the Congress, but a more direct approach for the support of the American public would be even more useful. Recall that the real alliance with Israel lies with the American people who have been greatly ignored by the recent Lapid/Bennett govt. Such alliances should be respected and engaged for their support in this war for a continuation of a united Jerusalem.
The American Radicals have their agenda fixed. It is important that the Israeli govt match these moves with a counterbalanced approach that, unfortunately, is better suited to the efforts of Bibi than Lapid, but a recent video Ted shared of Bennett showed us that he is not without his abilities on this front. One can never know what is being pursued behind the curtains, but we can see that whatever we are missing is missing the mark of victory as these Radicals mean to obtain their goals here. It would seem obvious that this battle for Jerusalem is one in which Israel should employ every asset available to prevent this consulate. It is a very late point in time to approach such a countermove as Mr. Kontorovich suggests, and it seems that the experience of the Israeli leadership and the wisdom that guides their priorities have chosen to react once the facts are made certain rather than to act towards preventing them. This is, and always was, a grand mistake.
Forget all of the scholarly crap!
Blinken works for a rogue regime in Washington that in turn works foreign interests that are in turn antagonistic to America & Jews.
Nothing good for Israel will come out of any diktat from this regime in Washington,only the prelude to the next
concession & the one after that till there is no longer an Israel.
Just look at the similarities between this current situation & Hitlers demands for the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in 1938.Both were & are just preliminary moves moves that begin the end for Israel.
What to do,what Jabotinsky would have done.
He would have told Blinken & Biden to ‘Go to Hell’.
Today,Israel is in much better shape against the Biden Regime than Czechoslovakia was in 1938.
This because in the short run there is nothing Israel needs from the rogue regime Washington,that it won’t get anyway.
In the long run this rogue regime,along with it’s demands, will no longer exist do to finances & the collapsed economy in America.