US and Israel to form team to discuss Palestinian consulate

Israeli officials say a joint team will hold discreet negotiations on the reopening of the US Consulate for Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem.

Arutz Sheva Staff , Oct 21 , 2021 6:02 AM<
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The US and Israel are planning to form a joint team to hold discreet negotiations on the reopening of the US Consulate for Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem, Israeli officials told Barak Ravid of Axios on Wednesday.

The consulate handled relations with the Palestinian Arabs before being shut down by former President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has promised to reopen it, but he needs approval from the Israeli government. Meanwhile, senior officials in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government see the consulate issue as a political hot potato that could destabilize their unwieldy coalition.

Biden told Bennett during their White House meeting in August that he will not abandon his plan to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem, setting up a major point of contention between the administrations.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid discussed the consulate issue during their meeting in Washington last Wednesday, according to Ravid’s report.

Lapid pushed back on the US position, saying, “I don’t know how to hold this coalition together if you reopen the consulate,” said Israeli officials cited in the report.

Blinken said he understood the sensitive political situation and wants to start a dialogue to work toward a solution, the officials said.

The Secretary of State proposed the formation of a small team, including Lapid and himself, along with one or two aides from each side to discuss the issue with maximum discretion.

Lapid reportedly agreed but said he wants to hold off on such a dialogue until after the Israeli government passes a budget in the first week of November.

The Biden administration had previously decided to hold off on reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem until after the budget is approve in Israel.

Asked after Lapid’s visit about the possibility of the US instead opening a consulate in Judea and Samaria, a senior Israeli official responded favorably but said he couldn’t say whether that was under consideration.

A spokesperson for Lapid said no team was formed yet, and reiterated that Lapid had made his opposition to the reopening of the consulate clear in all of his meetings in Washington.

A State Department spokesperson said, “We have nothing new for you on this issue at this time.”

October 21, 2021 | 4 Comments »

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4 Comments / 4 Comments

  1. Biden Palestinian consulate move will be Bennett’s toughest test
    Though delayed, the administration’s gesture to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital will be an invitation to future violence. Is the Israeli government capable of stopping it?

    The consulate reopening will tell Palestinians that they can forget about having to draw the difficult but necessary conclusions that Trump’s policies were pushing them towards. The consulate, situated as it will be in a Jerusalem neighborhood that not even left-wing Israeli governments would ever consider surrendering, will like virtually every similar gesture made by both Democratic and Republican administrations in the last 30 years not encourage Palestinians to think about peace. On the contrary, it will merely serve to convince them that they will pay no price for continuing to refuse to give up a conflict that is utterly futile but which has become an integral feature of their identity.

    The only question now is whether anything can be done to stop Biden from this folly.

    https://www.jns.org/opinion/biden-palestinian-consulate-move-will-be-bennetts-toughest-test/

  2. It’s like negotiating with an armed thief.
    He wants everything you have in your pockets & you politely ask him if he will settle for 3/4.
    The real problem isn’t the thief in Washington,the real problems are the bottom end politicians in the Knesset who would even consider the idea.

  3. Before they are given anything, the Fakestinians need to have their anti-Semitic textbooks banned and their payments to terrorists completely stopped. Otherwise, nobody should give them anything at all, since they have put themselves outside the civilized world.

  4. If the USA wants to work with the Pals tell them to rent a facility in Ramallah or just keep using the USA Embassy in Jerusalem. They are free to meet with whomever they want there.

    A separate facility to cater to NON-Israelis within sovereign Israeli Jerusalem is NOT acceptable.