Behind closed doors in the Prime Minister's Office, the Foreign Ministry, and the US State Department, high-ranking officials are trying to make Jews agree to divide their capital city without the people being divided noticing.
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No, no one involved is saying it. Some on the Israeli side are also trying to oppose it. But America is exerting pressure. Quietly, but still pressure. And without the Israelis noticing, it is also trying to get Jerusalem to make a move that effectively means dividing Jerusalem. That is the only message that arises from the US administration's intent to reopen the Palestinian consulate on Agron St.
To help it go down easier, the Americans (and some Israelis) are saying that "nothing is happening" and that "all we're doing is going back to the situation that existed until 2019." This is simply inaccurate. The Trump Administration's closure of the consulate was part of a move toward American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Anyone can understand that if a foreign entity opens a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem tomorrow, this means that the city is not only the capital of Israel, but also the capital of that same entity – and certainly when it comes to the Palestinian Authority, which is trying to get its hands on our capital.
A step like this goes against the Vienna Convention. Nowhere else in the world sees an embassy and a consulate operating in the same city, certainly not for two different national entities. Opening the consulate goes against both Israeli and American law, because both the Knesset and Congress passed laws, years ago, that anchor united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
To convince Israelis of how important the move is, American representatives explain that it is a "presidential promise." Sometimes they offer to pay for it with advanced weapons systems.
Indeed, it is very important to maintain good relations with and respect for President Biden, who loves Israel and is a true Zionist. But weighing in the balance against his campaign promises there is a different commitment, an eternal one, that Bennett, Lapid, Gantz, Lieberman, and others in the government have sworn multiple times – their commitment to Jerusalem.
We didn't return to the city in order to hand it over again to foreign powers. We didn't unite it in the 1967 Six-Day War to divide it under international pressure a few years later. It is difficult to stand up to US pressure when even the Europeans find it difficult to say "no" to the president.
But history shows us that the moments when we stand up for the eternal principles of the Jewish people are the ones that last, and this is what Bennett and Lapid need to do now. So when Bennett meets (probably two weeks from now) with President Joe Biden, he needs to tell him: "Jerusalem isn't for sale."
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