All but 12 House Republicans, such as all customers of the party’s management, signed onto a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the administration’s strategy to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that served Palestinians.
The letter, which was signed by 200 Republicans and led by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), argues that reopening the consulate, which was shuttered by the Trump administration in 2019, “would be inconsistent” with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. That bill directed the president to transfer the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and acknowledged Jerusalem as an “undivided city” and the money of Israel.
“Your administration would generate a misguided situation in which the U.S. would effectively have two independent diplomatic missions in Israel’s capital,” the letter, which was predicted to be sent Monday morning, reads. “The U.S. consulate normal in Jerusalem that was set up in 1844 was not meant to provide as an outreach to the Palestinians in Israel’s cash.”
“Reopening the U.S. consulate normal in Jerusalem would also reward and switch a bilnd eye to the Palestinian Authority partaking in the true obstacles to peace,” it provides. The letter also notes the Israeli government’s opposition to the shift.
The arguments in the letter echo those people built by Sen. Monthly bill Hagerty (R-TN) and much more than 30 Senate Republicans in a bill introduced last week searching for to bar the U.S. from reopening the consulate.
“The Biden Administration’s shameful move would have the unconscionable outcome of undermining the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s cash and signal assist for dividing Jerusalem,” Zeldin reported in a joint assertion with Home Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Overseas Relations Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Appropriations Committee Position Member Kay Granger (R-TX). “Having a U.S. diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem would be inconsistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.”
The statement also notes that Palestinian Authority Primary Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh not long ago advised that reopening the consulate would divide Jerusalem.
“The Biden Administration have to instantly end pushing this misguided effort and hard work,” the House GOP statement carries on. “Moreover, the Administration’s insistence is wrongly creating a rift concerning the United States and Israel, 1 of our closest and most essential allies, and moves the area further absent from peace.”
“The significance of this letter signed by just about the entire Home Republican conference are unable to be overstated,” explained David Milstein, a former unique assistant to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. “Opening a consulate in Jerusalem immediately after the United States identified Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem is not a return to the prior predicament but an hard work to walk back the recognition, aid the division of Jerusalem, and endeavor to erode Israel’s sovereignty over its eternal capital. This highly effective letter sends a very clear information to the Biden Administration to uphold U.S. regulation and stop its strain marketing campaign on Israel.”
Observers are divided more than irrespective of whether reopening the consulate would represent a violation of the 1995 laws which consists of no certain prohibition blocking the U.S. from retaining a further diplomatic facility in Jerusalem in addition to the embassy.
Eugene Kontorovich, director of the Heart for the Center East and Intercontinental Regulation at the Antonin Scalia Law University at George Mason University, told JI last 7 days that reopening the consulate would violate the “spirit” of the 1995 regulation.
Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace, explained to JI it was “a stretch” to argue that reopening the consulate violates the Embassy Act, and identified as Republicans’ target on the concern “clearly an work to embarrass the [Biden] administration.”
