8 | NOVEMBER 11 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

opinion
Israel Should Not Let the U.S. Reopen 
its Palestinian Consulate in Jerusalem
L

ast Wednesday, in 
response to a ques-
tion from Sen. Bill 
Hagerty, (R-Tenn.), U.S. 
Deputy Secretary of State 
Brian McKeon admitted in 
testimony before the Senate 
Foreign Relations 
Committee that 
under both U.S. 
and international 
law, the United 
States cannot 
open a consulate 
in Jerusalem 
without Israel’s 
consent. In other words, the 
prospect of the Biden admin-
istration 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 administra-
tion’s near-obsessive determi-
nation 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 “conces-
sion to the Palestinians,
” U.S. 
officials claim Saudi Arabia will 
open limited economic ties with 
Israel. Moreover, the United 
States 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 make is permission 
for the United States to open a 
consulate in Jerusalem for the 
Palestinians. 

A PALTRY OFFER
This brings us to the apparent 
U.S. 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 United Arab Emirates and 
Bahrain. Israel also reportedly 
has enjoyed strong security ties 
with Saudi Arabia for the past 
several years, which have bene-
fited 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 partic-
ipating Arab states, is not on 
the table. To date, Saudi King 
Salman has opposed joining the 
Abraham Accords directly.
At the same time, he permit-
ted Crown Prince Mohammed 
bin Salman (MBS) to play a 
key role in designing them 
and shepherding them for-
ward. 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 
took over. In recent months, in 
response to the Biden adminis-
tration’s open animosity toward 
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 side-
lines 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 U.S. presence in 
Jerusalem. If MBS is deposed 
in favor of another prince who 
succeeds King Salman, the like-
lihood that Saudi Arabia will 
scupper its ties with Israel—
whatever their level — is 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 U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, 
the damage will be irreversible.
If Israel approves the Biden 
administration’s request to open 
a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, 
it will undercut its greatest 
achievement during the Trump 
presidency — U.S. recog-
nition of Israeli sovereignty 
over Jerusalem. By opening a 
consulate to the Palestinians in 
Jerusalem, the United States will 
effectively abrogate U.S. rec-
ognition of Israeli sovereignty 
in Jerusalem and transfer that 

recognition to the Palestinians. 
Israeli approval of the United 
States’ 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 tempo-
rarily 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.

IRREVERSIBLE MOVE
In the case at hand, however, 
Israel’s concession is irrevoca-
ble regardless of who leads the 
government in Jerusalem. Here 

Caroline 
Glick
JNS

The former U.S. 
Consulate in 
Jerusalem, 
July 19, 2009. 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

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