Redividing Jerusalem: Perverse Symbolism by U.S. State Department

Dear Friend of FLAME:

What seemed a few months ago like an average frivolous idea by the overzealous ‘New Guard’ now running the U.S. State Department seems today like a determined effort to take Israel down a peg.

Since day one, the new administration has talked about reestablishing warm relations with the Palestinian Authority by re-opening its Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. Ha, ha, very funny, thought many of us: There’s no state of Palestine, Jerusalem is the U.S.-recognized capital of Israel, the Palestinians are still paying terrorists to kill Israelis—this idea will vaporize in a few months.

But it didn’t. Now State Department functionaries are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to allow the consulate on Israel’s territory. So far, Israel’s leaders have firmly (no doubt politely) refused.

Jerusalem is arguably the most contentious issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is a highly symbolic city for Jews, Christians and Muslims, but despite being ruled by the latter for almost 1300 years, no Muslim ruler ever made it a capital, and most left it in disrepair, a neglected backwater.

For Jews, Jerusalem has been their revered capital for thousands of years. It is the focal point of prayer—mentioned during many festive and lifecycle occasions. Every inch of Jerusalem—east, west, north and south—has Jewish history still being discovered just below the surface.

For decades, the U.S. understood well the position that Jerusalem was the indivisible capital of Jerusalem. Since the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed by the overwhelming majority of both parties in both houses, Jerusalem was officially recognized as the capital of the State of Israel—and that Jerusalem is to remain an undivided city.

Despite taking decades to implement the law, President Trump made it official in 2018. So, why is President Biden’s team seeking to undo this bipartisan and longstanding position?

Indeed, the Biden State Department appears hellbent on changing U.S. policy. Its persistence in trying to open a new diplomatic office in Jerusalem that would serve the stateless Palestinians appears to be the first salvo in a strike by the administration to extort Israel’s new government and symbolically divide the Jewish state’s capital city.

Since the Trump Administration directive in 2018, the U.S. moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This embassy services Jews and Arabs, both Israelis and those who define themselves as Palestinians.

There is absolutely no practical reason to open a consulate for Palestinians. According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relationships, a diplomatic mission serves to represent the sending State in the receiving State; protect the interests of the sending State in the receiving State; negotiate with the receiving State; promote friendly relations with the receiving State; and develop their economic, cultural and scientific relations.

None of these things are possible because the Palestinians do not have a state, and Jerusalem is sovereign Israeli territory.

Rather, the State Department seems to want to recognize Palestinian claims to the city and place the division of it back on the table. If State is thinking practically—rather than politicly—they could open a mission in Ramallah where the Palestinian Authority resides ( a scant 11.5 miles from Jerusalem) or Abu Dis, a Palestinian village just outside Jerusalem. When foreign dignitaries today meet with Palestinian officials like Mahmoud Abbas, they go to Ramallah.

Opening a new consulate for the Palestinians on Israeli territory would be a blow to Israel’s prestige, standing and sovereignty. Even Israel’s biggest critics on the international stage have not dared to open a new consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians. While some European nations have consulates that cater to Palestinians in the city, they predated the Jewish state.

Many of those in the Biden Administration and on the radical left know well that while the consulate is unnecessary, it would be a hugely symbolic blow to Israel. Not only would it place Jerusalem back on the negotiating table—and de facto recognize Palestinian claims to the city—it would symbolize the Jewish state’s subservience.

However, neither the U.S.—nor any other nation—can open a diplomatic mission without the Israeli government’s permission. Indeed, both Israel’s current ruling coalition and opposition parties oppose the new consulate, and both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid have expressed robust objection.

The only hope the U.S. has to open the consulate is to strongarm or bully Israel. While it is conceivably possible to open a mission, a host country has to agree to many bureaucratic and administrative measures—such as providing visas to officials who work there, beefing up security around the premises and agreeing to work with it on a day-to-day basis on diplomatic and consular issues.

Thus, while Israel itself should resist the opening of the consulate, all Americans who regard the State of Israel as a friend and an ally should call on the administration to end this pressure on the Jewish state. They should call out the tiny but vocal extreme minority in the Democratic Party that sees this issue as a weak spot for undermining Israel, claiming the move is merely a bureaucratic necessity—which it clearly isn’t.

In fact, opening a consulate would be the first domino toward full recognition of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. As Israel’s seat of government, removing a chunk of it will merely embolden the Palestinians.

When the Jewish state feels most isolated and threatened—as it did during the Obama Administration—Iran raced ahead in its nuclear weapons program, and Hamas and Hizbullah gathered strength. Mahmoud Abbas sat recalcitrant in Ramallah and watched mounting pressure on Israel, firm in the knowledge that he did not have to move an inch. The policy may have been a diplomatic failure for the U.S., but it was dangerous and bloody time for Israelis—with many Israelis murdered in terrorism, the effects of which are still felt.

I hope you will point out to friends, family, colleagues and your elected representatives that if President Biden considers himself a friend of Israel—as he often states—he must resist pressure from within his administration to open this consulate in Jerusalem.

While some may see it as a relatively minor issue, for Israel it appears the start of reversing of Israel’s claims to Jerusalem—erasing thousands of years of Jewish attachment to the city, a creeping recognition of Palestinian claims, and a message that the U.S. and Israel no longer stand side by side. In short, it would be a disaster for both nations.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—which exposes “Ben & Jerry’s Bad Taste” and those who support boycotts of the Jewish state.

Best regards,

James Sinkinson
President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)