From News Nation:
“US to reopen Jerusalem
consulate, upgrading Palestinian ties”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken
announced Tuesday that the U.S. would reopen its Consulate General in Jerusalem
— a move that restores ties with Palestinians that had been downgraded by the
Trump administration. The consulate long served as an autonomous office in
charge of diplomatic relations with the Palestinians. But former U.S. President
Donald Trump downgraded its operations and placed them under the authority of
his ambassador to Israel when he moved the embassy to Jerusalem. Trump’s move
infuriated the Palestinians, who view east Jerusalem as occupied territory and
the capital of their future state.
Blinken did not give a precise
date for reopening the consulate. Blinken announced the step after a meeting
with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in the occupied West
Bank. The U.S. is trying to bolster Abbas in his rivalry with Gaza’s ruling
Hamas militant group and on the international stage. “As I told the president,
I’m here to underscore the commitment of the United States to rebuilding the
relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, a
relationship built on mutual respect and also a shared conviction that
Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of security, freedom
opportunity and dignity,” he said. Blinken is in the region to help shore up
the cease-fire last week that ended a devastating war 11-day war between Israel
and Hamas that killed more than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, and caused
widespread destruction in the impoverished coastal territory. He promised to
“rally international support” to aid Gaza after the war while keeping any assistance
out of the hands of Hamas.
The truce that came into effect
Friday has so far held, but it did not address any of the underlying issues in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something Blinken acknowledged after meeting
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We know that to prevent a
return to violence, we have to use the space created to address a larger set of
underlying issues and challenges. And that begins with tackling the grave
humanitarian situation in Gaza and starting to rebuild,” he said. Blinken will
not be meeting with Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and
which Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization. Blinken addressed
the larger conflict, saying “we believe that Palestinians and Israelis equally
deserve to live safely and securely, to enjoy equal measures of freedom,
opportunity and democracy, to be treated with dignity.” But the top U.S.
diplomat faces the same obstacles that have stifled a wider peace process for
more than a decade, including a hawkish Israeli leadership, Palestinian
divisions and deeply rooted tensions surrounding Jerusalem and its holy sites.
The Biden administration had initially hoped to avoid being drawn into the
intractable conflict and focus on other foreign policy priorities before the
violence broke out. Netanyahu, meanwhile, is fighting for his political life
after a fourth inconclusive election in two years. He faces mounting criticism
from Israelis who say he ended the offensive prematurely, without forcibly
halting rocket attacks or dealing a heavier blow to Hamas. Netanyahu hardly
mentioned the Palestinians in his remarks, in which he warned of a “very
powerful” response if Hamas breaks the cease-fire. Netanyahu spoke of “building
economic growth” in the occupied West Bank, but said there will be no peace
until the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” The Palestinians
have long objected to that language, saying it undermines the rights of
Israel’s own Palestinian minority.
The war was triggered by weeks of
clashes in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and
around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site revered by Jews and Muslims that has
seen several outbreaks of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years. The
protests were directed at Israel’s policing of the area during the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families
by Jewish settlers. The truce remains tenuous since tensions are still high in
Jerusalem and the fate of the Palestinian families is not yet resolved. The
evictions were put on hold just before the Gaza fighting erupted, but the legal
process is set to resume in the coming weeks. Police briefly clashed with
protesters at Al-Aqsa on Friday, hours after the cease-fire came into effect. Adding
to the tensions, an Israeli soldier and a civilian were stabbed and wounded in
east Jerusalem on Monday before police shot and killed the assailant in what
they described as a terrorist attack. Then, early Tuesday, a Palestinian man
was shot and killed by undercover Israeli forces near the West Bank city of
Ramallah, according to the Wafa news agency. Pictures circulating online
appeared to show the man bloodied and lying in the street. The Israeli army
referred questions to the Border Police, which did not respond to requests for
comment.
Blinken will head to Ramallah
later Tuesday to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has no
power in Gaza and was sidelined by recent events. Abbas heads the
internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the
occupied West Bank but whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized
power there in 2007. Abbas, who called off the first Palestinian elections in
15 years last month when it appeared his fractured Fatah movement would suffer
an embarrassing defeat, is seen by many Palestinians as having lost all
legitimacy. A crowd of worshippers at Al-Aqsa chanted against the Palestinian
Authority and in support of Hamas on Friday. But Abbas is still seen
internationally as the representative of the Palestinian people and a key
partner in the long-defunct peace process. The Palestine Liberation
Organization, the umbrella group led by Abbas, recognized Israel decades ago,
and the Palestinian Authority maintains close security ties with Israel. Blinken
will also visit neighboring Egypt and Jordan, which have acted as mediators in
the conflict. Egypt succeeded in brokering the Gaza truce after the Biden
administration pressed Israel to wind down its offensive.
The administration had been
roundly criticized for its perceived hands-off initial response to the deadly
violence, including from Democratic allies in Congress who demanded it take a
tougher line on Israel. Biden repeatedly affirmed what he said was Israel’s
right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Gaza. The administration has
defended its response by saying it engaged in intense, but quiet, high-level
diplomacy to support a cease-fire. Blinken has said the time is not right for
an immediate resumption in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but that steps
could be taken to repair the damage from Israeli airstrikes, which destroyed
hundreds of homes and damaged infrastructure in Gaza. The narrow coastal
territory, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been under a crippling
Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power. Israel says the blockade is
needed to keep Hamas from importing arms, while the Palestinians and human
rights groups view it as a form of collective punishment.
^ The US Consulate in Jerusalem
can be for the Palestinians in The West Bank and in Jerusalem, but the US
Embassy in Jerusalem and the US Consulate in Tel Aviv are for the Israelis. There
should be no direct communication with Gaza or Hamas. ^
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