Biden’s Jerusalem Embassy Dodge

 Editorial of The New York Sun | October 10, 2021

In the next big engagement in what we like to call the Battle of Jerusalem, it looks like the lineup will be President Joe Biden against — wait for it — Senator Biden. The question is whether Mr. Biden will take care that the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 is faithfully executed, as it was — and for the first time — by President Trump. Or will Mr. Biden seek to undercut the law by opening a separate consulate in Jerusalem to deal with the Arabs?

What stands out for us in this situation is the fact that Mr. Biden was the first co-sponsor of the Jerusalem Embassy Act. He signed onto the bill the day it was introduced by a Republican, Senator Dole. Yet now Mr. Biden is maneuvering to undercut the very law that he cosponsored (and that passed the Senate 93 to five). It’s doubly dastardly because the implementation has vindicated those who helped get it passed.

The latest piece on all this is from one Eugene Kontorovich, the law professor at George Mason who has emerged as a sage on international law. His piece, in Israel Hayom, is on Mr. Biden’s scheme to open in Jerusalem a consulate for the Palestinian Arabs. Our embassy in Jerusalem “already provides consular services to the Palestinians,” Mr. Kontorovich notes. “Why do they need an independent consulate in the same city?”

Mr. Kontorovich suggests that it is “unheard of” to have an independent consulate in the same city where a country has an embassy. He reckons that the point is “to undermine former US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem.” Why, though, would he want to do such undermining if he, as Mr. Biden unambiguously was, a cosponsor of the Jerusalem Embassy Act to begin with?

Writes Mr. Kontorovich: The U.S. “does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic liaisons” with the Palestinians. “If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah — where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA. Or they could reopen the Palestinian mission in Washington,” which Mr Trump also closed.

“By instead demanding that Israel accede to a consulate in Jerusalem,” Mr. Kontorovich points out, “the administration is showing this is not just about having a convenient place for coffee with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Indeed, the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. If the PA has no legitimate claim to Jerusalem, there can be no reason to have a consulate there.”

Mr. Kontorovich notes that this is why opening a consulate in Jerusalem is the “main Israel-related policy demand” of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. He also notes that a former American envoy to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, “made clear before the last U.S. election that opening a separate consulate to the Palestinians would be designed to signal U.S. support for a Palestinian capital in that city.”

Mr. Kontorovich notes that America long maintained a consulate separate from the embassy. “But that is because the U.S. had not recognized Jerusalem as even being in Israel (and obviously that consulate was established without any relation to the Palestinians). When Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital and moved the embassy, he had to close the consulate because its separate existence was simply inconsistent with this recognition.”

Opening a separate consulate now, Mr. Kontorovich concludes, would “turn the clock back to before the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem. The Biden administration knows it does not have domestic support to completely unrecognize Jerusalem — so it is catering to far-left demands by undoing the natural consequences of recognition.” Were Israel to allow such a consulate, it would set a dangerous precedent for other countries.

Mr. Biden, Mr. Kontorovich reports, is pressuring Israel by insisting that the Jerusalem consulate was a campaign promise. The 2020 Democratic Platform said “that while Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, it should remain the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths. Democrats will restore U.S.-Palestinian diplomatic ties and critical assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, consistent with U.S. law.”

That puts Israel in a strong position to stand on its principles in respect of the embassy. We’ll never forget Senator Moynihan, a Democrat down to the ground, quoting to us Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s warning that the fate of Jerusalem would not — and could not — be decided on Capitol Hill. It could and can be decided only by Israel. Too bad Mr. Moynihan is not around to buck up Mr. Biden to stand by the bill he helped pass.

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/bidens-jerusalem-embassy-dodge/91687/