Report: Joe Biden Administration Plans ‘Reset’ with Palestinians

Joe Biden and Yasser Arafat (Atef Safadi / Associated Press / Pool)
Atef Safadi / Associated Press / Pool
Deborah Brand

The Biden administration is planning a “reset” with the Palestinians after the relationship crumbled under former President Donald Trump, according to an internal State Department memo.

The memo, titled “The US Palestinian Reset and the Path Forward,” is still in an early “working stage” draft, according to the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper The National.

The memo, which was given to Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, would form the basis for rolling back parts of Trump’s policies, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Drafted by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr, the plan includes a $15 million aid package in COVID-related humanitarian aid for the Palestinians and supports a return to the two-state solution.

“As we reset US relations with the Palestinians, the Palestinian body politic is at an inflection point as it moves towards its first elections in 15 years. At the same time, we [the US] suffer from a lack of connective tissue following the 2018 closure of the PLO office in Washington and refusal of Palestinian Authority leadership to directly engage with our embassy to Israel,” the memo reads.

The memo says the U.S. vision hopes “to advance freedom, security, and prosperity for both Israelis and Palestinians in the immediate term which is important in its own right, but also as means to advance the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution.”

The Biden Administration’s approach will return to past formulas, with the two-state solution “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees,” the memo said.
The Trump administration maintained that the two-state solution, heavily touted by the Clinton and Obama administrations, had failed on multiple fronts because it does not take into account facts on the ground.
The Biden reset plan also calls for the resumption of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The Trump administration cut aid to the U.N. agency over allegations of corruption and incitement.
The agency drew international criticism after a leaked internal report alleged corruption, sexual misconduct and mismanagement at the agency’s highest levels, and also infamous for spreading antisemitic hate in its schools and employing members of terror organizations and supporters of terror.

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