Sitting next to the Israeli Foreign Minister in Washington this October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was clear: The Americans want to re-open their consulate in Jerusalem to serve Palestinians.
“We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians,” Blinken said at the State Department.
Less than a month later, Israel’s political leadership was also clear: it has no plans to approve such a consulate.
Asked by CNN at a press conference Saturday evening about US intentions, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his government had presented its opinion to the Americans “clearly and openly.”
“There is no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem. We always present our position quietly without drama and we expect it to be understood. Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel,” Bennett said, standing alongside Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Credit: cnn.com
