Who The US Embassy Serves in Jerusalem: USA's Desire for a Palestinian-State

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

A view of the damage to the U.S. Embassy after the bombing in 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon of an Islamic Jihad car bomb that destroyed the embassy in which 17 out of 63 killed were Americans.  Embassies are often targets of terrorists.                                  

   Hady Amr  is a Beirut, Lebanese born April 8, 1964)  American government official serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs within the U.S. Department of State.  The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, also known as the Bureau of Near East Asian Affairs, is an agency of the Department of State within the United States government that deals with U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic relations with the nations of the Near East. Whether in a U.S. Embassy or a consulate, consular officers at post are the State Department employees whom both American citizens overseas and foreign nationals are most likely to meet. Consular officers protect U.S. citizens abroad and their property. Seems like Hady is the go-between for USA with Israel and Palestinians in East Jerusalem.  

The primary purpose of an embassy is to assist American citizens who travel to or live in the host country. U.S. Foreign Service Officers also interview citizens of the host country who wish to travel to the United States for business, education, or tourism purposes.  In this case, Israel is the host country and there to help American citizen tourists.  

     Israel's Embassy in Washington DC., capital of USA  

The main function of a consulate is to undertake administrative duties such as processing visas for citizens of their host territory, as well as providing  providing information and guidance about immigration processes....not to create a new state of Palestine. 

  The Old city was Israel's original land, where Saul, David and Solomon lived.  It is part of Judea-Samaria, the homeland.  

 The Old City today (including the already mentioned Muslim Quarter)The Old City (Hebrew: הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה,  is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem, part of the territory considered to be occupied by Israel by the international community but is all inclusive as the capital of Israel with the rest of Jerusalem. has an Arab population of 36,681 and a Jewish population of 3,847. In 2016, the population of East Jerusalem was 542,400, comprising 61% of Jerusalem's residents. Of these, 214,600 (39.6%) were Jews, and 327,700 (60.4%) were Arabs.

               USA Embassy in Jerusalem, capital of Israel

Trump's plan was to merge the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem which served as the United States’ principal venue for communication with the Palestinian people and Palestinian leadership, into a subunit of the U.S. Embassy in Israel—which Trump moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May of 2018.  Now they are both in the same building, in the US Embassy.  

The Arab citizens of Israel, who comprise slightly more than one-fifth of Israel’s total population, possess the same rights as Jewish Israelis under the law. They are distinct from most Palestinians in the West Bank, who are governed by the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinians in Gaza, who live under Hamas’s rule, as well as most Arab residents of East Jerusalem, who have more restricted rights.

President Biden had proposed to reopen the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem, used during Obama's Presidency,   but Israel objected to this on the basis that serving Palestinian Arabs only and operating from Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was an encroachment on Israeli sovereignty.  It was the first step in a land take-away. 

     The Mandelbaum Gate , Jerusalem is a former checkpoint between the Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, just north of the western edge of the Old City along the Green Line. The first checkpoint for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission at the Mandelbaum Gate, from the close of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in 1949 until August 1952, was moved from the Israeli side of the Gate to the Demilitarised Zone after the "Barrel Incident".^[1] The second checkpoint existed until the 1967 Six-Day War. The Gate became a symbol of the divided status of the city.

 Jerusalem is a untied city after suffering from being divided for too many years before 1967. Jews could not enter East Jerusalem from 1948 to the end of the 1967 Six Day War.  It was divided by Jordan with barbed wire.     

Hady Amr and Ilan Goldenberg write that the merger of the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and the new U.S. embassy there does major harm to the U.S. ability to act as a mediator in the conflict and serves as a severe blow to the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace through a two-state solution. This piece originally appeared on ForeignPolicy.com.  You can see that their main focus is to push the creation of Palestine right along Israel at a time when both countries are not in any peaceful mode.  The fear for many is that this is an invitation to be attacked easier by the Palestinians, which they have been doing non-stop from Gaza for years.  Israelis along the border are saying, "Enough-already!"  

He was appointed to the role under President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. He was born in Lebanon, and has close ties to the region, being praised by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders alike.

He is a policy analyst and author in the area of U.S. relations with the Muslim world and on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon, Jordan, and the economic and social development of the Arab world. He has served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, as a Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Middle East at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and as United States Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations from 2014–2017.

Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah take part in Ashura commemorations in a southern Beirut suburb. Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Lebanon is a failed state. Hezbollah wields significant power in Lebanon, where it operates as both a Shiite political party and militant group.  It opposes Israel and Western powers operating in the Middle East, and it functions as a proxy of Iran, its largest benefactor.  The group has faced unprecedented scrutiny from the Lebanese public amid the country’s political and economic crisis.

 Jordan is actually a Palestinian state already where King Abdullah runs the show, not the Palestinians, which is why there is still peace between Israel and Jordan.   

Hamas militia members patrol a street in Gaza City, April 23, 2021. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The problem as I see it is that the Palestinians have been squatters, demanding the land, while Israelites not only were there first 3,000 some years ago, but the creators of the land today, continuing where their ancestors left off.  These squatters attack even when Israelis offered peace.  It's as no win proposition dealing with them.  

Israel says it killed 14 senior Hamas commanders and officials; wave of communal clashes between Jewish and Arab Israelis spreads--Wall Street Journal

Palestinians:  Fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has escalated drastically in the first few weeks of May 2021, leading to fears the conflict could develop into a protracted war.  That was last year.  The Palestinians and other Muslim countries signed an oath at the end of the 1967 War, doing it in Africa at a meeting saying NO to 3 facts, NO PEACE was one of them.  Even though the Abrahamic Accords have a good start, the Palestinians are not part of it.  They don't have the good intentions of being a peaceful neighbors, their intention is to destroy Israel and take it over as their Palestine.  In May 2021, Hady Amr was sent to the Middle East to help in trying to defuse tensions between Israel and Palestine.

After restoring aid to Palestinians, Biden endorses two-state solution, which is a type of appeasement.  Reversing Trump policies, US president tells Jordanian king that ‘United States supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.’'

Update: 6/7/22: from Flame:  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGpGKjcGFTLjqFftWhhphlMPvSD

 Nides’ boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, repeatedly challenges Israel about actions he believes “endanger the Two-State Solution” . . . as if such a solution exists. Even if it did, the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders stand staunchly against any permanent “two-state solution.”

Update: 6/10/22  from  Axios:https://www.axios.com/2022/06/09/palestinian-office-jerusalem-state-trump-reversal?utm_source=email

The Biden administration has rolled back a Trump administration decision to place the department that deals with the Palestinians within the U.S. Embassy to Israel, the State Department said Thursday.  Why it matters: The move carries symbolic meaning by differentiating the U.S.-Israel relationship and the U.S.-Palestinian relationship. It also comes ahead of President Biden's expected trip to the region next month and as his administration seeks to reassure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that it is committed to the Palestinians.  

Israel last week rejected a proposal by the Biden administration to hold a high-level summit with the Palestinian Authority, three Israeli officials told Axios.  Why it matters: The Biden administration is trying to create a “political horizon” or diplomatic process between Israeli and Palestinian officials in an attempt to strengthen the PA.  The big picture: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed frustration and warned Israel and the Biden administration about the potential consequences if the stalemate in the peace process continues.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_United_States_embassy_bombing_in_Beirut

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-restoring-aid-to-palestinians-biden-endorses-two-state-solution/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hady_Amr

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/10/24/merging-the-us-consulate-and-embassy-in-jerusalem-shows-us-is-no-longer-truly-pursuing-a-two-state-solution/

https://www.onlinevisa.com/faq/what-is-the-difference-between-a-consulate-and-an-embassy/

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGpGKjZgzsnGMrdxFxGGtCndSGg