WALL STREET JOURNAL
Blinken Seems Intent on Sparking a Crisis Over Jerusalem
by Eugene Kontorovich
October 25, 2021
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. READ MORE
GATESTONE Richard Kemp: Jerusalem Consulate: A Nail in the Coffin of Peace As well as betraying Israel, Biden’s irresponsible diplomatic signaling — which also appeases his hard-left supporters — is a betrayal of the Palestinian people. They have suffered too long and too hard under the hostility of their leadership, which has consistently refused to entertain all proposals for peace with Israel that could lead to the establishment of their own state.
JERUSALEM POST Morton A Klein: Israel can’t submit to Biden pressure on consulate, settlements In order to uphold Israel’s legal, moral and sovereign rights and security, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett must withstand Biden administration demands to reopen a US Palestinian-Arab consulate in Jerusalem and “restrain” Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem
JNS Senators move to block Biden’s plan to reopen consulate for Palestinians Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act was introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and co-sponsored by 34 other Republicans.