Given the Biden administration’s near-obsessive determination to open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, it’s just a matter of time before it presents an offer it believes Israel will be unable to refuse.
By Caroline B. Glick, ISRAEL HAYOM 10-31-2021 13:47
Last Wednesday, in response to a question from Senator Bill Hagerty, (R., TN), US Deputy Secretary of State Brian McKeon admitted in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that under both US and international law, the US cannot open a consulate in Jerusalem without Israel’s consent. In other words, the prospect of the Biden administration opening a consulate to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital city without requesting Israel’s permission to violate Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem is off the table.
Given the Biden administration’s near-obsessive determination to open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, it’s just a matter of time before it presents an offer it believes Israel will be unable to refuse.
On Friday, Israeli financial daily Globes published the outline of such an offer. In exchange for an Israeli “concession to the Palestinians,” US officials claim Saudi Arabia will open limited economic ties with Israel. Moreover, the US will provide limited visa exemptions to Israeli tourists.
The article suggests – and Congressional sources warn – that the “concession to the Palestinians,” Israel will be required to provide is permission to the US to open a consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians.
This brings us to the apparent US offer. Its paltriness is as breathtaking as it is insulting. As the Globes article noted, Israel and Saudi Arabia already conduct economic exchanges, including trade deals through Abraham Accords partners the UAE and Bahrain. Israel also reportedly has enjoyed strong security ties with Saudi Arabia for the past several years, which have benefitted both nations.
The Globes article reported that Saudi participation in the Abraham Accords, which involve full normalization of economic and diplomatic ties between Israel and the participating Arab states, is not on the table. To date, Saudi King Salman opposed joining the Abraham Accords directly.
At the same time, he permitted Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman (MBS) to play a key role in designing them and shepherding them forward. While King Salman is not expected to change his position, while Donald Trump was president, most observers believed that MBS would bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords and fully normalize Saudi ties with Israel once he takes over. In recent months, in response to the Biden administration’s open animosity towards Saudi Arabia generally and MBS in particular, Saudi foreign policy has become increasingly contradictory and MBS’s hold on power has weakened.
Given the uncertainty, Israel’s best move in relation to Saudi Arabia is to sit on the sidelines and allow internal Saudi processes to unfold. If MBS becomes the monarch and his Trump-era positions remain unchanged, he will normalize ties with Israel regardless of the nature of the US presence in Jerusalem. If MBS is deposed in favor of another prince who succeeds King Salman, the likelihood that Saudi Arabia will scupper its ties with Israel – whatever their level – will be very high. So whatever Saudi Arabia offers Israel today will be easily reversed.
On the other hand, if Israel agrees to permit the operation of a US consulate in Jerusalem, the damage will be irreversible.
If Israel approves the Biden administration’s request to open a US consulate in Jerusalem, it will undercut its greatest achievement during the Trump presidency – US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. By opening a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the US will effectively abrogate US recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and transfer that recognition to the Palestinians. Israeli approval of the US’s request will automatically be interpreted by everyone as an Israeli renunciation of Israel’s sovereign rights to Jerusalem.
Apologists for the Biden administration and Israeli leftists will claim that the Jerusalem deal on the table is just a new version of the deal Israel made with the UAE last year. But this is completely wrong. The UAE offered Israel full peace. The deal reportedly being discussed with the Saudis is far more limited.
More importantly, in exchange for full diplomatic and economic ties with the UAE, Israel agreed to temporarily place a hold on its plan to apply its laws in parts of Judea and Samaria, in furtherance of then-President Donald Trump’s peace plan. Israel can decide to end the hold and implement the sovereignty plan at any point.
In the case at hand, however, Israel’s concession is irrevocable regardless of who leads the government in Jerusalem. Here Israel isn’t being asked to put its plans on hold. The Biden administration is asking Israel to permit the US to subvert Israel’s sovereign rights and control over Jerusalem by giving the Palestinians the power to challenge and undermine all aspects of Israel’s municipal and national operations in Jerusalem with American backing.
This brings us to the second “gift” the Biden administration is apparently offering Israel – limited visa exemption for US entry to Israeli tourists. The offer itself is an expression of US contempt, rather than good will towards Israel. No country concedes its sovereignty over its capital city to make it easier for its citizens to vacation in America.
As McKeon admitted, Jerusalem’s fate is in Israel’s hands. The government needs to recognize that no offer – certainly not the absurdity now being bandied about – is worth sacrificing the capital.
@Adam
I was greatly alarmed to hear of the coup. It will be a great setback, I think, as you are likely correct about related topic of the Abraham Accords. It was likely a related consequence one way or another to the coup in the US. It would not surprise me to learn that the Radicals in Washington actually pushed the Sudan generals to their actions, but then nothing coming from these Radicals would easily surprise me.
This sort of dependency upon stable govts in a region where stability is rare is further support for why Israel should not leverage any point of concession of significance towards realizing such peace accords with her Sunni neighbors. If these Sunni states seek peace, let them bring peace and trade and relations will follow. They have their vital interests and Israel has her own. But if these Sunni states seek donatives in the form of vital interests to Israel as a sacrifice for them to make public their association with the Israeli state, let them savor their ideas of peace until a more honest image of peace can be discussed. Such concession-borne peace initiatives are something else in the guise of peace and there is no treaty worth such strong sacrifices as was recently suggested in exchange with even the likes of the Saudis.
The Afghan disaster was implicitly supported by Miley and Austen for they refused to use the weight of “their convictions” (and resign) to oppose Joe and his handlers.
Don’t forget the Golan Heights!
No one has so far remarked in Israpundit on the recent military coup in the Sudan, which is said to have been carried out by “conservative” Islamist officers. If so, Sudan will certainly withdraw its recognition of Israel and its adherance to the Abraham accords and resume its hostility to Israel. It would certain appear as if the repacement of Trump with Biden means that Sudan’s generals no longer feel that they need to normalize their relations with Israel in order have friendly relations with the United States and receive American aid. They may also be convinced that the U.S. will not object, except pro forma, in their resumption of persecution of the Muslim but non-Arabic-speaking population of Darfur. Perhaps they will even feel empowered to reconquer the non-Muslim South Sudan, and reintroduce slavery.
I am very interested to know what other Israpundit readers/commentators think about this troubling development. Also, what does our webmaster think.
The Whole deal involved here is absurd.
Saudi Arabia needs Israel, at this time.
For another thing,the rogue regime in Washington is now in disrepute in the SA.governing circles.Governing circles that would be very unlikely to make far reaching decisions involving the regime in Washington.
Mainly,the whole balance of power in the middle east has shifted in the last couple of years.
The new alignment is:
Western Europe,NWO/Old World Order in EU,UN,who own the Democrat regime in Washington.
The Western Europeans (EU) who previously backed the Arab States are now is in bed with Iran.
Iran is the natural enemy of the Sunni Arabs & Israel.
That makes the regime in Washington,by association with the EU,an enemy of both the Sunni Arabs & Israel.
The Sunni Arabs have no defense against Iran other than Israel which is the only hi tech modern regional power available.It’s a case of ‘The Enemy of My Enemy is My Ally”
Basically there are 2 blocs involved in the Middle East which are hostile to each other,The Sunni Arabs & Israel are in one bloc while Iran & Western Europe & Washington thru Western Europe are in the other rival bloc bloc