The Joe Biden administration has been trying in recent days to assuage the growing frustration of Palestinian authorities, who are hoping the American president will fulfill his promise to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem. The task of pleasing the Palestinians, however, collides with the expectations of Israel, a country with which the United States is currently experiencing a moment of exceptional affability.
The Americans had a consulate in Jerusalem for their representation to the Palestinians. When, in 2018, then-President Donald Trump moved the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he closed the office. The gesture was important because it signaled support for Israelis in the dispute with Palestinians in the city that both sides consider their capital. It was also a symbol of the lowering of the Palestinians in American priorities.
Biden won elections in 2020 and, disappointing the Palestinian National Authority, never reopened the consulate. Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, repeated the pledge on Tuesday (31) and rejected the idea that it had been abandoned. On the same day, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated the demand in a phone call with Antony Blinken, responsible for diplomacy – he had already asked for the reopening of the office in March, in a face-to-face meeting.
Abbas said he hoped Biden would turn his words into actions, according to Palestinian state news agency Wafa. There is, however, no date for the eventual inauguration nor any indication that Biden has made any concrete gesture.
In the meantime, rumors are circulating that the US may take temporary steps to pet the Palestinians. The Times of Israel, for example, said on the 29th that Biden should appoint Hady Amr, of Lebanese origin, as special envoy for Palestinian affairs.
The idea is that the American embassy in Israel, which Trump transferred to Jerusalem, will stop taking care of issues related to the Palestinians. These would be handled by Amr’s Washington-based team, effectively increasing diplomatic representation without reopening the consulate. According to the newspaper, which heard diplomats, this arrangement already exists, but has not yet been formalized. The idea is to make the announcement before Biden’s trip to the region, scheduled to take place in late June.
“There is tremendous frustration among Palestinians,” he tells Sheet Ghaith al-Omari, a senior analyst at the Washington Institute. Omari, who was an adviser to Mahmoud Abbas for US relations, says Amr’s appointment is seen as a half-measure. The server’s name circulates well among Palestinians, and he is seen as a fair figure in mediating disagreements, “but it doesn’t carry the same diplomatic weight as reopening the consulate.”
The Palestinian leadership has few outlets today, apart from continuing to express its displeasure. Biden doesn’t have many options for resolving this impasse either. Israelis would interpret the reopening of the consulate as an American signal that they see Jerusalem as the possible capital of a Palestinian state — an idea they dread.
The US does not want to displease Israel, in part because the countries are experiencing an exceptional moment today. “The relationship between the Biden administration and that of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is very strong,” says Dov Waxman, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “It’s impressive, if you compare it to the bitterness and disputes between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu,” he says, citing the former US president, a Democrat like Biden, and the former Israeli prime minister.
In this context, Waxman says, the possible appointment of Amr as a special envoy would be a way to “appease Palestinian frustration without harming American relations with Israel.”
There is still one more factor in Washington’s calculation. The reopening of the consulate in Jerusalem could provoke reactions so strong that they would threaten the fragile coalition that keeps Bennett in power – and Netanyahu out of it. “The Biden administration prefers the current prime minister and knows that if it presses too hard on the consulate issue, this coalition could disintegrate, which would be a bad choice,” says Eytan Gilboa, a professor of international relations at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
The alliance, which brings together acronyms from the left to the far right, including parliamentarians of Arab origin, has suffered defections and recent shocks, amid criticism over police action in clashes with Palestinians on the Esplanade of the Mosques.
Like the other ears Sheet, Gilboa says he does not believe the US will reopen the consulate in Jerusalem in the coming months. Biden must continue to prioritize his good relations with Israel and focus on what the professor describes as the two pressing issues of American diplomacy in the region: the nuclear deal with Iran and the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab countries.
“The Palestinian issue is the least important today,” he says.
