US pushing Israel to avoid further damaging ties

The US administration has been pushing Israel to avoid taking unilateral steps that would further damage ties with the Palestinians in the lead-up to President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and the West Bank next month, two Israeli and Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel last Wednesday.

The messages were passed along in a series of meetings a visiting US delegation held with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials over the past week. Recent meetings and conversations US officials have held with Palestinian Authority officials “set off a warning light” for Washington regarding the urgency of the problem and the nadir to which Israeli-Palestinian ties had plummeted, a source familiar with the matter said.

The US is particularly concerned about an Israeli effort to advance what critics call a “doomsday” settlement construction plan in the E1 area of the West Bank. After repeated delays due to international pressure, the Defence Ministry put the project on the docket for a July 18 hearing, during which legal objections to the plan will be raised and likely dismissed.

The visiting delegation led by US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf urged Israel to scrap the hearing, which would take place just four days after Biden’s trip, the Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

The Israeli official said Jerusalem would not be able to commit to such a request at this stage, given the fragility of the government, which includes right-wing settlement supporters who are on the verge of bolting. The official said a delay of the E1 plan may be in the cards closer to the hearing date but also downplayed the significance of the session, saying that the project still has a ways to go before ground can be broken.

The plan would see 3412 homes built between the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and Jerusalem, in the middle of the West Bank, breaking up contiguity between Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

The Biden aides also urged Israel to cease military operations such as home demolitions and evictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as raids of Palestinian towns in Area A of the West Bank, which are supposed to be under full PA control. The Israeli army regularly enters Area A, but such operations have increased in recent months amid a deadly terror wave that took the lives of 19 people.

For their part, the Israeli ministers meeting Leaf declined to commit to ease military operations in the West Bank, saying they are launched based on security necessity, the Israeli official said. However, the Walla news site reported that Israel has heeded the call in at least one case, delaying the punitive home demolition of the shooter from the April Tel Aviv terror attack from Wednesday until after Biden’s trip.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

TIMES OF ISRAEL