Joe Biden became the first US President to visit East Jerusalem despite warnings from US congress members that such a move would be a “sign of continued support” for the Palestinian Authority and lend credence to the PA’s “illegitimate efforts to claim” the region.
“Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state. Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem – including the East, which it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War – as its indivisible capital,” six representatives argued in a letter to the White House, underscoring that the region falls under Israeli sovereignty, un-divided, and is recognized as such by the US Congress.
The signatories of the letter included Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Randy Weber (R-TX), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Bill Johnson (R-OH), and W. Gregory Steube (R-FL).
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, additionally warned that Biden’s visit to East Jerusalem would pay the way for dividing Jerusalem.
“An American president has never visited east Jerusalem before. Neither George Bush Sr., nor George Bush Jr., not Bill Clinton, not Donald Trump and not even Barack Obama,” he noted. “The symbolic nature of this visit has been created to pave the way for the US administration to challenge Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.”
Danon asserted that Israel’s current government, fragmented as it may be, should never have green-lighted the visit to east Jerusalem.
“The US administration recognizes the weakness of the transitional government, and the teams that have already arrived in the country are requesting compromises from Israel that they would never have dared to ask if Israel had a strong right-wing government,” he insisted. “Lapid, it turns out, is willing to surrender to many requests, simply to please Biden.”
“I call on [Israeli Interm Prime Minister Yair Lapid] today to refrain from political concessions for what is essentially a photo-op with the president of the United States,” Danon urged. “Lapid, you have no mandate to relinquish Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.”
Palestinian Consulate to the United States In Jerusalem
The stop in East Jerusalem came as the Biden Administration has continued to voice its intentions to open a consulate in the region to the Palestinians separate from the US embassy, which was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during the Trump Administration.
The push to open the Palestinian consulate has been widely opposed, including by 200 House Republicans, who signed a letter last October underscoring that such a move would “create a misguided situation in which the US would essentially have two separate diplomatic missions in Israel’s capital.”
The House members additionally noted that such a move would not only be against international law but would also “reward and turn a blind eye to the Palestinian Authority engaging in the real obstacles to peace, such as refusing to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State.”
Mike Pompeo, who served as the Secretary Of State during the Trump Administration, stated that the opening of a consulate in East Jerusalem is “a terrible idea” for both Israel and the United States.
“It’s illegal under US law. We just, as a rule, when we recognize nations, we have an embassy, we don’t place the consulate in the same city. It’s a rule that we have, most nations have the same rule,” Pompeo said during a visit to Israel late last year. “The message that this would send to the Palestinian leaders who continue to oppress their own people, is really bad.”
“But here’s what we don’t want. We don’t want to mislead them. And to think that the United States is somehow neutral between a country like Israel, a democracy like Israel, and an oppressive kleptocratic regime, like the regime that’s running the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank today” is a ridiculous idea, Pompeo explained.
Back in August, Michael Freund, who served as deputy communications director under prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term, made clear that a separate consulate to the Palestinians would “lay the groundwork for dividing Jerusalem.”
“Such a move, if allowed to take place, would not only be a slap in the face to Israel, but it would serve to encourage greater extremism by stoking misguided Palestinian hopes of obtaining a foothold in the city,” Freund insisted. “And lest there be any doubt as to how the Palestinians are interpreting the proposed move, consider the following. On the day following Blinken’s announcement, Hussein al-Sheikh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, told Palestine TV that the US announcement was a clear message that eastern Jerusalem is part of the ‘occupied Palestinian territories.’”
“Consequently, the Biden administration has succeeded in reigniting the Palestinian illusion that they will gain control over Jerusalem,” he said, “a fantasy that only serves to feed greater extremism and rejectionism.”
“Israel must stand firm on this issue and reject any request by Washington to open a separate consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem,” he warned. “We cannot and must not agree to allow Mr. Biden to lay the groundwork for dividing Jerusalem. No other country in the world would even consider consenting to such a step, which would only undermine the international legitimacy of our rightful claim to our own capital. And neither should Israel.”
Biblical Warning Against Dividing Jerusalem
The Bible sends a stark and prophetic warning against nations that seek to divide the nation of Israel and, specifically, its capital Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:3 states: “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”
Former Congress Member Michele Bachmann, in an interview with FRC President Tony Perkins last May, spoke of the Biblical ramifications for nations that, by their actions, curse the nation of Israel.
“We know that the Bible is true, and the Bible says very clearly in Genesis 12:3 that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and the United States has had a posture of being pro-Israel, but not always,” she described. “There’s times where we have gotten off track in this country. We were extremely pro-Israel from 2016 to 2020.”
“Joe Biden wants Israel to collapse their boundaries back to 1967. There is no basis and no reason why Israel would do that, and yet that is the demand coming forth,” she explained. “The Biden administration is seeking to divide Jerusalem so that eastern Jerusalem would become the new capital for the new Palestinian State. They’re looking at statehood. They are very adamant.”
“Everything that they are pushing for, that they are doing, is anti-Israel and pro a Palestinian State and Pro-Iran. So the Biden administration is enriching and empowering Israel’s enemies at the expense of peace, prosperity, and security in Israel,” Bachmann warned.
“There is a direct link, as the Bible says, between nations that bless Israel and nations that don’t,” she stressed. “In fact, the Bible is very clear in Joel 3:2 that there is only one criteria upon which nations will be judged, and that is how nations treat Zion, Israel.”
“If nations seek to divide the land or scatter the Jewish people from their land or treat Jewish life cheaply, nations will be held accountable for that by the Lord,” Bachmann asserted. “And this is God’s law.”
