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Biden's Israeli-Palestinian Reset Is Premature, Ill-Advised

(Jerusalem Post) Amb. Alan Baker - The U.S. administration has detailed plans for a "reset" in Washington's approach to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. There can be no genuine and bona fide reset of the administration's approach which ignores and leaves intact the continuing Palestinian incitement and anti-Semitism against Israel and the Jewish people. There can be no genuine reset if the Palestinian support and encouragement of the BDS campaign against Israel's economic, cultural, and political integrity is allowed to continue and to develop. There can certainly be no genuine reset if the Palestinian leadership is allowed and even encouraged to continue in its efforts to undermine the Palestinian-Israeli peace process by undermining Israel's legitimacy, as well as through its cynical manipulation of the International Criminal Court. To reset the U.S. approach without requiring the Palestinian leadership to cease their "pay-to-slay" policy of paying salaries to terrorists and their families is tantamount to turning a blind eye to such payments and ignoring valid U.S. legislation prohibiting such payments. To reopen Palestinian diplomatic offices in the U.S. and Israel, as well as restoring U.S. financial assistance for the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, without exacting the appropriate substantive quid pro quo from the Palestinian leadership, will not reset the peace process. To the contrary, by giving a green light and encouraging the Palestinians to continue their intransigence, it will place that process into a mode of acute regression. Restoration of financial aid to the Palestinians without requiring them to cease their attempts to undermine Israel's legitimacy signals to them that they can freely advance their policies of bypassing and undermining any possible chance to reengage with Israel in a meaningful and genuine negotiation process. One wonders why this new U.S. administration is so intent on coddling the Palestinians, without exacting the appropriate and necessary price. The writer, former legal counsel to Israel's foreign ministry and former ambassador to Canada, heads the international law program at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2021-04-05 00:00:00
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