US President Joe Biden’s administration has implemented a bureaucratic yet symbolic move aimed at strengthening diplomatic ties with the Palestinians in lieu of reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem.
The de facto mission to the Palestinians was shuttered by former US president Donald Trump in 2019 and the diplomats in the office were moved under the auspices of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, making them a subdivision of Washington’s ties with Israel called the Palestinian Affairs Unit.
Earlier today, the PAU’s name was officially changed to the Office of Palestinian Affairs.
A spokesman for the newly named office tells The Times of Israel that the OPA remains under the auspices of the embassy but now “reports on substantive matters directly” to the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in Washington, rather than to the US ambassador to Israel as had been the case for the past three years.
The PAU will continue to be led by George Noll, who has headed the PAU for the past several years.
“The name change was done to better align with State Department nomenclature,” the OPA spokesman says. “The new OPA reporting structure is designed to strengthen our diplomatic reporting and public diplomacy engagement.”
The move is the first in a series of steps aimed at boosting ties with the Palestinians as the Biden administration holds off on reopening the US consulate due to Israeli opposition.
The more significant step the US planned to announce before Biden’s upcoming trip to Israel was to elevate Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr to the role of special envoy to the Palestinians, two US and Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel last month.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared the plan with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a phone call last week, but the latter did not take well to the idea, demanding that the Biden administration uphold its repeated pledges to reopen the consulate, the two officials said. Abbas asked Blinken to hold off on announcing Amr’s new position.
The US has not given up on the move and will discuss the issue further with the PA when an advance team for Biden’s trip visits Ramallah at the end of the week, an American official said. The delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
(c) 2022 The Times of Israel. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Biden has the worst case of Trump Derangement Syndrome of any Liberal. He is hell-bent on undoing everything Trump simply because Trump did it and it was good for America. It is nothing but a personal vendetta.
Not a personal vendetta by Biden, their is nothing left in his brains but mush. The vendetta comes from BHO, Soros, Gates, etc., and the progressive Marxist new world order people.
ITS a vendetta period. Don’t matter who is pushing it.
palestine does not exist god gave that to israel.
palestinians are murderous thugs who live to kill jews.
And Democrats are murderous thugs who live to kill babies. The American Democrat Party that God gave America no longer exists. Say what you will about the Palestinians, they have yet lowered themselves to the level of American Secualar Democrats by selling the body parts of those they kill for profit. Of course the Biden administration will reflect the image of the Great Consumer just like the palestininas whose entire nation Creates nothing but greed, human abuse and chaos and lives off the donations of nations that do create. Taking sides with the Judeo Christain people of Creation would casue tody’s Democrats heads to spin 360 degrees and their beds turn into flying carpets. Palestinians live to split heads,,,,Modern Democrats live to vomit split pea soup.
AND yet 99% o the jews in america, tend to VOTE Democrat…
We used to call Palestines terrorist. I thought the U.S. Doesn’t deal with terrorist . I guess Biden does.