Reopening US Jerusalem consulate for Palestinians is insanity - opinion

• Author: JOSH FELDMAN
• Published date: 29 September 2021

If this definition is correct, then there have been few better cases of this diagnosis in recent decades than the US-Palestinian relationship. And in keeping with its futile tradition of placating Palestinian leadership in the hope that American friendliness will cajole Ramallah into moderating its stance vis-à-vis Israel, the Biden administration is planning on reopening its Jerusalem consulate, used to handle US-Palestinian affairs until its 2019 closure by the Trump administration. Should the consulate – against Israeli advice – be reopened, it will merely add to the long list of feckless American policies in the Israeli-Palestinian arena.

In 1988, following the Palestine Liberation Organization's renunciation of terrorism and recognition of Israel's right to exist, President Ronald Reagan announced the commencement of official US-PLO dialogue. With the subsequent Oslo Accords engendering hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Palestinian extremism and recalcitrance became increasingly viewed as relics of the past.

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But while such hopes for Palestinian moderation have since proven fanciful, US administrations have continued appeasing the PLO, despite its unrepentant promotion of rabidly antisemitic conspiracy theories and support of terrorists – financial and otherwise. Reopening the Jerusalem consulate will once again remind Palestinian leadership that despite its manifest refusal to cease its extremist behavior, the United States will continue treating it as an equal partner.

With decades of experience behind him, President Joe Biden is no stranger to the vitriol spread under Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's guidance, be it praise for Adolf Hitler on PA television, the PA's commending of the notoriously antisemitic Russian forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an "important book," or the encouragement on PA TV to carry out terror attacks. Yet despite such abject extremism emanating from Ramallah, Biden deemed it appropriate to reward Palestinian leadership by reopening the American mission in Jerusalem.

But this move isn't just another misguided attempt to appease Palestinians. By forcing it through (Israeli permission is required to reopen the consulate, which is expected to be given begrudgingly), Biden would be contravening nearly three decades of bipartisan US policy of recognizing...