In-Depth Issues:
IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi: Return to Iran Nuclear Deal Is Strategic Mistake - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
A return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, or a "slightly improved" deal, would be an operational and strategic mistake for the world, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned on Tuesday.
He said that the U.S. and others must maintain all sanctions and pressure now as Tehran is at its weakest and closest to making real concessions.
Moreover, he said that the normalization trend is isolating Iran in ways that it never expected and was not prepared for.
See also The Iranians Know Israel Means Business - Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Yossi Kuperwasser ( Israel Hayom)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to come up with plans for possible offensive action against Iran to prevent the Iranians from acquiring a nuclear weapon, making Israel's fervent opposition to a return to the nuclear deal perfectly clear to the White House.
Iran's clear preference to return to the deal and its energetic efforts to this end are proof that Kochavi was correct in his analysis that a return to the deal is good for Tehran and threatens regional and global peace as well as Israel's security.
Despite their claims otherwise, the Iranians are likely taking Kochavi's remarks very seriously indeed.
The writer, former head of the research division of IDF Military Intelligence, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Biden Freezes U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia - Warren P. Strobel ( Wall Street Journal)
The Biden administration has imposed a temporary freeze on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and is scrutinizing but did not freeze purchases by the UAE as it reviews weapons transactions approved by former President Trump, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. officials said it isn't unusual for a new administration to review arms sales approved by a predecessor and that, despite the pause, many of the transactions are likely to ultimately go forward.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Visits Sudan ( Times of Israel)
Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen on Monday became the first Israeli minister to visit Sudan following the recent normalization deal.
Cohen led a delegation from his ministry and from the National Security Council, holding talks with senior Sudanese officials including Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, and Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim.
Israel Reopens Mission to Morocco after 20 Years - Lahav Harkov ( Jerusalem Post)
The Israeli Liaison Office in Morocco reopened on Tuesday when former ambassador to Egypt David Govrin arrived in Rabat.
The Israeli Liaison Office was previously opened in 1994 and closed six years later during the Second Intifada.
Frequent New York Times Opinion Writer Was Secret Iranian Agent, Federal Prosecutors Charge - Ira Stoll ( Algemeiner)
The New York Times published more than a dozen opinion articles and letters to the editor by Kaveh Afrasiabi. On Jan. 18, Afrasiabi was arrested and charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Iranian government.
The U.S. Justice Department said, "Since at least 2007 to the present, Afrasiabi has also been secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York City (IMUN)."
"Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN's official bank accounts."
His opinion pieces were authored "at the direction and under control of" the government of Iran.
See also Political Scientist Author Charged with Acting as an Unregistered Agent of the Iranian Government ( U.S. Department of Justice)
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PA: The Holocaust Was Europe Repaying Jews for Their "Wickedness" - Itamar Marcus ( Palestinian Media Watch)
In time for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, official
Palestinian Authority TV taught viewers that the Holocaust was the price the Jews paid for their "evil behavior."
PA Chairman Abbas himself explained that Europeans committed massacres against Jews "every 10 to 15 years" for centuries culminating in the Holocaust in response to Jewish behavior.
Abbas' Fatah movement also produced a video, purportedly about Jewish history in Europe, which makes the same claim that Jews brought anti-Semitism on themselves, presenting Jews as an evil and threatening force from which Europeans had to defend themselves.
As a result of the PA's continuous demonization of Jews, an ADL Global 100 poll found that 87% of Palestinians believe "People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave."
The poll also found that Palestinians are the most anti-Semitic population in the world.
PA incitement to hate and terror successfully poisons the minds of the Palestinian population and remains the driving force behind Palestinian hate and terror.
"Tribal Justice" in PA Outflanks Official Legal System - Rania Zabaneh ( Al Jazeera)
Palestinians are resorting to settling disputes outside Palestinian courts which people are trusting less and less.
Tribal justice is seen as the alternative by many, deriving its provisions from tribal traditions and cultural heritage. Yet human rights groups say it compromises justice for stability, does not provide for fair trials, discriminates against women, and imposes collective punishment on families.
A recent Palestine Transparency poll showed that 2/3 of Palestinians believe there is corruption in the courts and public prosecution.
In Huwwara, south of Nablus, fires have been set in three buildings on the outskirts of the village since last June. They belong to the families of nine Palestinians charged with the killing of three others in a street fight in May 2020.
The homes were initially burned in foret al-dam, the time period immediately after a crime is committed.
During foret al-dam, which translates to "when the blood boils," if the family of the victim attacks properties of the family of the perpetrator, damages are not accounted for and all members of the killer's family are legitimate targets.
Israeli Food Truck Sells 1,000 Servings of 3D-Printed Vegan Meat in Five Hours - Anna Starostinetskaya ( VegNews)
In mid-January, a food truck selling 3D-printed vegan meat in Kidron, Israel (a suburb of Tel Aviv), sold 1,000 servings in five hours.
Hosted by Israeli vegan company Redefine Meat, the food truck served traditional meat-centric Mediterranean dishes without initially informing customers that the meat component was vegan.
When customers learned that the meat they consumed was plant-based, 90% were satisfied and said that it was comparable to animal-derived meat in taste, texture, and mouthfeel.
Founded in 2019, Redefine Meat uses a revolutionary 3D technology that maps 70 sensorial parameters to create vegan meat that mimics the taste, texture, and juiciness of beef steak.
Israel in Figures ( Israel Central Bureau of Statistics)
Download a 34-page report with selected data on 28 topics from the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2020.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Secretary of State Blinken: Iran's Return to Compliance with Nuclear Deal Will "Take Some Time"
Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Wednesday:
"With regard to Iran, President Biden has been very clear in saying that if Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States would do the same thing and then we would use that as a platform to build, with our allies and partners, what we called a longer and stronger agreement and to deal with a number of other issues that are deeply problematic in the relationship with Iran."
"But we are a long ways from that point. Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts. And it would take some time, should it make the decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance in time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations. So we're not there yet."
(U.S. State Department)
See also below Observations: At the UN, the U.S. Outlines President Biden's Approach to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (U.S. Mission to the UN)
- Israel's Early Vaccine Data Offers Hope - Isabel Kershner
On Monday, the Israeli Health Ministry and the Maccabi HMO released new data on people who had received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The ministry found that out of 428,000 Israelis who had received their second doses, a week later only 63, or 0.014%, had contracted the virus. Similarly, the Maccabi data showed that more than a week after having received the second dose, only 20 out of roughly 128,600 people, 0.01%, had contracted the virus.
(New York Times)
Maccabi reported that out of the 20 people infected, 50% suffer from chronic illnesses. All patients experienced a mild illness. No one was hospitalized. (Jerusalem Post)
- U.S. Forces Expand Reach in Saudi Arabia - Gordon Lubold
The U.S. military has been using an array of ports and air bases in Saudi Arabia's western desert, developing basing options over the past year to use in the event of a conflict with Iran. "What it does is to give us options," said Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are negotiating plans for investments in infrastructure for ports in coastal Yanbu as well as air bases at Tabuk and Taif, to make them more usable for the U.S. military. The Saudis would pay for the infrastructure improvements.
(Wall Street Journal)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israel Sees Blood Libel in False Palestinian Covid-19 Vaccine Charges - Tovah Lazaroff
Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told the Security Council on Tuesday: "I would like to shatter the latest blood libel being spread by the Palestinians - false and grotesque accusations about Israel's campaign to vaccinate its people....According to the international agreements, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for the healthcare of its own population, just as it is responsible for their education system." The PA "informed Israel they intend to purchase vaccines from the Russian government and Israel has announced it will facilitate their transfer. These are the facts."
In addition, "since the outset of the pandemic, Israel has worked closely with UN bodies to assist the Palestinians, training medical staff and supplying them with essential equipment....There is a long history of using every crisis to spread anti-Semitism and blame the Jews." (Jerusalem Post)
- Biden UN Nominee Pledges to Combat Anti-Israel Bias, BDS, Iranian Threat - Omri Nahmias
UN Ambassador-designate Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that she will be "standing with Israel, standing against the unfair targeting of Israel, the relentless resolutions that are proposed against Israel unfairly."
"I find the actions and the approach that BDS has taken toward Israel unacceptable, it verges on anti-Semitism, and it is important that they not be allowed to have a voice at the United Nations, and I intend to work very strongly against that."
Regarding Iran, she added, "We will work and make every effort to ensure that the Iranians do not gain access to a nuclear weapon." (Jerusalem Post)
- Palestinian Terrorist Killed amid Stabbing Attack in West Bank
IDF troops on Tuesday spotted a Palestinian assailant, Atallah Ryan, who attempted to stab two IDF soldiers near Ariel in the West Bank. The attacker tried repeatedly to stab the woman soldier at the scene, Cpl. Leanne Haroche, 22, from Britain, who managed to fight him off using the butt of her weapon, while the force commander fired towards the assailant and neutralized him. (Ynet News)
See also Mum of UK-Born IDF Solder Who Stopped Terror Attack Speaks of "Pride and Worry"
Michal Haroche, the Israeli mother of a British-born IDF soldier who fought off a Palestinian attacker on Tuesday, told of her "pride and worry" after her daughter called her moments after the incident. "She called me immediately after it happen, because she knew I would see it on the news....She said, 'mum, don't worry, we had an incident, I'm OK'....There was blood on her hands as she's speaking to me....Soon I saw it all on Facebook and WhatsApp, then I realized Leanne fought the terrorist who tried to stab her." (Jewish News-UK)
- Coronavirus in Israel: New Mutations Keep Infection Rate High - Rossella Tercatin
The Israel Health Ministry reported 7,668 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. 1,132 are in serious condition, with 306 on ventilators. Over 1,200 people have died from the virus in January.
A report by Hebrew University researchers on Wednesday indicated a decline in the rate of new cases, but noted the uncertainties caused by highly infectious new coronavirus mutations.
At the same time, 200,000 people are vaccinated every day. 1.5 million people have received both doses.
(Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- A Return to the Nuclear Deal Would Be a Strategic Mistake - Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin and Ebtesam al-Ketbi
For the U.S. to simply return to the 2015 nuclear agreement would be a major strategic blunder. The deal was based on assumptions that proved flawed and overly optimistic. The accord did not tame Iran's policies, empower moderates in Tehran, pave a path to a good-faith relationship with Iran allowing for further cooperation, or "block all of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon."
A future Iran policy must counter Iran's malign regional activities and resist the temptation to try to game Iran's political dynamics. At the same time, it should allow for a more intrusive inspections regime and more restrictive and longer-lasting constraints on Iran's nuclear program. Returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is highly risky, especially given the approaching "sunsets" on nuclear restrictions. Hope is not a strategy.
Amos Yadlin is executive director of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies and former head of IDF military intelligence. Ebtesam al-Ketbi is president of the Emirates Policy Center.
(Foreign Affairs)
- Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif: No Follow-On Agreements to 2015 Nuclear Deal - Dr. Saeed Ghasseminejad
Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif gave an interview in which he denied there was going to be any JCPOA 2 and 3, meaning the regime will not negotiate any follow-on agreements to the 2015 nuclear deal that would limit Iran's missile program and regional policies. This is a serious problem for President Biden, since he justifies his pledge to rejoin the flawed JCPOA - and, in doing so, lift sanctions - by insisting that he will pursue a tougher follow-on deal. If Washington reenters the JCPOA, it will lose all of its leverage, and Tehran will have no reason to curb its missiles and regional policies.
The writer is a senior Iran and financial economics advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
(The Hill)
- The Dangers of Lifting Sanctions on the Islamic Regime of Iran - Arvin Khoshnood
Before making any decisions on resuscitating the nuclear deal, President Biden must consider the negative effects of the deal on the Iranian people and the stability of the Middle East. It is both false and extremely naive to assume that if the JCPOA is brought back to life the regime will commit to its promises to refrain from producing a nuclear bomb and will respect international law.
The writer holds degrees in political science, human geography, and intelligence analysis from Lund University in Sweden and is fluent in Persian.
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)
- Experts Warn Against Quick Return to Iran Nuclear Deal - Ishaan Tharoor
Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution told a webinar last week that Tehran's strategy at present was aimed at goading the Biden administration quickly back into the nuclear deal. "The Biden administration should resist the temptation to be drawn into crisis diplomacy with the Iranians," she said.
Maloney and other experts in Washington advocate a more measured approach that cools tensions without immediately lifting all of Trump's sanctions. "Tehran would be wrong to assume that [the] administration would hesitate to maintain or even intensify pressure on the Islamic Republic - this time in coordination with European allies - if it were to issue excessive demands," noted a report from the International Crisis Group.
(Washington Post)
- It Might Not Be So Easy to Reboot the Iran Deal - Dov S. Zakheim
The notion that the original deal with Iran was somehow a great accomplishment because it delayed the time frame within which Iran could fashion a nuclear weapon from a few months to an estimated year was fanciful at best. A year can pass very quickly, and the difference of a few months might prove to be no difference at all, given uncertainties surrounding what exactly Tehran was up to, and the reluctance of the West to go to war. Were the West truly able to detect Iranian activity, it could act within the few months it would take Iran to build a bomb in defiance of the deal.
Many who opposed the deal felt that once America signed the agreement it should not withdraw from it in order not to undermine its credibility as a reliable interlocutor. However, having abandoned the deal, returning to it is an entirely different proposition. The Biden Administration must be wary of making any gestures that the Ayatollahs could pocket without giving anything in return. Washington should not do away with any sanctions unless Iran reciprocates in some fashion.
The writer served as the undersecretary of defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the U.S. Department of Defense (2001-2004).
(National Interest)
Other Issues
- How the PA Should Approach the Biden Administration - Mohammed Dajani
For progress to occur, the Palestinian leadership must not take Biden for granted. The PA should not seek to force the president's hand with a long list of demands. Generally, the PA should begin to approach their political leverage in the region more realistically. The Palestinian leadership vehemently opposed Israeli normalization with the UAE, but only succeeded in creating enmity between the PA and Gulf governments who otherwise ardently support their cause. It would be a blunder for the PA leadership to continue opposing the normalization policy.
Moreover, the PA needs to understand that Palestinian interests suffer severely from the kind of direct collisions with the U.S. that happened under both the Obama and Trump administrations. In avoiding such collisions, the PA should stop pushing for the maximalist UN resolution and develop a coherent, realistic peace plan that considers both sides' interests and security concerns.
Most importantly, popular attitudes and civil society will have to bend towards peace. If leaders are unwilling to engage in negotiations or final status talks, it likely means their constituents are not pressuring them to do so. In that case, there is not much the Biden administration can do.
The writer, a fellow at The Washington Institute, founded the Wasatia movement of moderate Islam and previously worked as a professor of political science at al-Quds University in Jerusalem.
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
- We Should Have a Vaccine Against Viral Propaganda - Dan Diker
Even a compassionate reading of Yara Hawari's Mail & Gardian opinion piece "The dark side of Israel's vaccine success story" (Jan. 13, 2021) leads the reader to the unavoidable conclusion that this University of Exeter-educated Palestinian political activist either overlooked or under-researched basic, publicly available information on the rights and responsibilities of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and those of its neighbor, Israel.
PA governmental control and Israel's withdrawal from areas under PA jurisdiction were carried out with the signing of the Oslo II interim peace accords, which set up a fully operational health ministry in the PA. This legally binding diplomatic agreement refutes the allegation of Israeli military occupation via a "regime of absolute control" that she erroneously asserts is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinian public in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet Hawari repeats the erroneous term "military occupation" eight times - as if repeating it makes it truer.
During my recent visit to the UAE, I was struck by expressions of disgust by UAE leaders toward the PA leadership for turning back plane loads of UAE healthcare assistance to fight Covid-19, just because the planes landed at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport. Had Hawari spent more time in the Palestinian-governed areas talking with officials, she would likely have been informed that the PA delay in securing vaccines was a result of its internal decisions. Had the PA asked Israel for assistance instead of engaging in boycotting of Israeli ministries, the PA would be farther along in vaccinating its public. The writer is a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
(Mail & Guardian-South Africa)
Anti-Semitism
- The War over the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism - Gerald M. Steinberg
An acrimonious debate is taking place around the working definition of anti-Semitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a document formally adopted by 30 governments in Europe, North America and Australia. The definition includes a number of examples, some of which relate to Israel and the anti-Zionist form of anti-Semitism. These include "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination," applying double standards not "demanded of any other democratic nation," using symbols "associated with classic anti-Semitism...to characterize Israel or Israelis" or comparing "contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis."
For some vocal organizations and individuals, the Israel-related examples of anti-Semitism are unacceptable and are portrayed, or distorted, as attempts to "silence criticism" of Israeli policies. In reality, there is plenty of room to criticize Israeli policies without resorting to discriminatory boycotts, comparing the IDF to the Nazis, or labeling the Jewish state as inherently racist.
Amidst the mudslinging, the core issues of anti-Semitism and the escalating attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions are marginalized and even forgotten.
The writer is emeritus professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and heads the Institute for NGO Research in Jerusalem.
(Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
- Educational Ethnic Cleansing - Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp
According to a report published by David Collier, a British researcher, some UK universities are now virtually Judenfrei: free of Jews. This is a chilling indictment not just of British academia but of a liberal democratic society that has tolerated a wave of discrimination against Jews that has swept through the universities over recent decades. This Jew-hate is cloaked in anti-Zionism, a doctrine that claims the Jewish state, alone among the nations, has no right to exist.
The reality in Britain today is that many Jewish students choose their university by the extent of anti-Semitism they will find there. You can meet many Jewish students in Britain who attest to this. I speak frequently at universities on a range of subjects. Only when speaking at the invitation of Jewish or pro-Israel groups have I experienced any hostility as opposed to open debate. In virtually every case, the form of protest is not to disagree but to silence.
The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
(Gatestone Institute)
- What's the Matter with Holocaust Education? - Jonathan S. Tobin
At the heart of the failures of Holocaust education is that it is not taught as history. Instead, the Holocaust is part of a universal lesson about the evils of prejudice. Students are not instructed about the specifics of two millennia of Jew-hatred and how they produced the circumstances that allowed Germany - a nation known for its devotion to science and the arts - to invest vast resources on a war aimed at exterminating the Jewish people. Instead, they are taught about the irrationality of arbitrary biases against all groups.
There is some value to any sort of moral education. However, it doesn't seem to have occurred to most people to ponder why it is that after so much has been done to promote knowledge of the Holocaust in schools and popular culture, why all this information and instruction hasn't had the intended effect with respect to anti-Semitism. Jews are not only the only victims of prejudice and genocide has been practiced elsewhere by others against other populations. But anti-Semitism is not an abstract idea of prejudice.
Anti-Semitism is a political ideology and a way to weaponize grievances against Jews. The universalizers have helped strip the Holocaust of its meaning in a way that allows today's anti-Semites to use it as a cudgel against Israel. Programs that primarily use the Holocaust as a way to teach morality have become a hindrance to our ability to properly understand anti-Semitism. (JNS)
Weekend Features
- Ukraine's President Zelensky Unveils New Babyn Yar Monument on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday unveiled a new monument commemorating the Babyn Yar massacre at a ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The monument includes a tree with broken branches, as a metaphor for a life cut short.
Israel's President Reuven Rivlin broadcast a message saying:
"There has been no crueler, no more concentrated instance of mass killing than that of Babyn Yar....Let the memory of our brothers and sisters who were slaughtered at Babyn Yar, and at other extermination sites, be engraved in our hearts forever." On Sep. 29-30, 1941, 33,771 Jews, including infants, children, women and the elderly, were shot at the Babyn Yar ravine by the Nazis.
(Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center)
- The Dutch Village that Rescued Jews - Cnaan Liphshiz
Nearly all the 700 residents of the Dutch rural community of Nieuwlande were involved in hiding and saving hundreds of Jews as well as resistance fighters and German deserters during World War II. In 1985, Nieuwlande became one of only two locales honored collectively by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum for rescuing Jews, alongside Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in France.
"The rescuers were mostly religious people, some very religious, and I think this played an important role in their actions," said Haim Roet, 88, who spent months in hiding in Nieuwlande and immigrated to Israel in 1949. The leaders of the rescue operation were gardener Arnold Douwes and farmer Johannes Post.
Douwes was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1983, but threatened to burn down a tree that was planted in his honor unless his whole village was recognized as well. In 1988, Yad Vashem dedicated a monument to honor the village. In a 1985 interview, Douwes said: "I did it all because I had no other choice." (JTA)
- An 80-Year Search for the Murderers of Jews in Lithuania - Efraim Zuroff
A Nazi war crimes investigation of the brutal murder of Jewish infants in Raseiniai, Lithuania, has continued until 2021. Of the 220,000 Jews who lived in Lithuania under the Nazi occupation, 96.4% (212,000) had been murdered.
In 1945, Leib Kunichowsky, a Jewish survivor of the Kovno Ghetto, collected
1,684 pages of testimony in Yiddish on the fate of Jews in the provincial communities. Kunichowsky focused on the identity of the perpetrators and the critical role played by local Nazi collaborators in the murders. The testimony
contained the names of 1,284 Lithuanian perpetrators, of which only 121 were known from other sources.
I first learned of the testimonies in 1980, while working as a researcher in Israel for the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals who had immigrated to the U.S. after World War II. After gaining access to the material in 1989, I was able to find many dozens of suspects who had fled to the West.
(Times of Israel)
Observations:
- Acting U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Mills shared with the Security Council on Tuesday "some of the contours of the U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under President Biden. Under the new administration, the policy of the United States will be to support a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state."
- "The United States will urge Israel's government and the Palestinian Authority to avoid unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more difficult, such as annexation of territory, settlement activity, demolitions, incitement to violence, and providing compensation for individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism."
- "President Biden has been clear in his intent to restore U.S. assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people and to take steps to re-open diplomatic missions that were closed."
- "At the same time...the United States will continue its longstanding policy of opposing one-sided resolutions and other actions in international bodies that unfairly single out Israel."
- "The Biden Administration welcomes the recent normalization agreements between Israel and UN Member States in the Arab world, as well as Muslim-majority countries....The United States will continue to urge other countries to normalize relations with Israel, and we will look for other opportunities to expand cooperation between erstwhile adversaries."
- "Yet, we recognize that Arab-Israeli normalization is not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians may not be the major fault line in the Middle East, but its resolution nevertheless would significantly benefit the region as a whole."
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