Biden's Betrayal of Israel Takes Shape as Administration "Upgrades" Relations with Terrorist-Aligned Palestinian Authority

Step by insidious step, the Biden Administration is eroding the U.S.-Israel relationship and undermining Israel's stability and security. In the most recent outrage, the Biden Administration quietly announced – during the Thanksgiving holiday when Congress was away – that it was upgrading diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and that, while this had been in the works for months, Israel was only recently informed.

The direct assault to Israel's sovereignty is unmistakable.

As when Biden traveled to parts of Jerusalem, replaced the Israeli flag on his car with the PA flag, and forbade Israeli officials from attending events – in their own capital city – where he honored terrorist PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, this "upgrade" comes at the direct expense of U.S. interests in the Middle East. And it directly threatens to undermine the extraordinary surge toward peace and normalization under the historic Abraham Accords of the Trump Administration.

This is not because the PA is making sudden overtures to peace – they never have and are not now either. In fact, this comes in the midst of a surge of deadly Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including bus bombing, car-ramming, kidnapping, stabbing, and more.

Moreover, the individual now charged with running this new office, Hady Amr, appears to have a deep and ugly history of virulently anti-Israel activism and rhetoric. He has long threatened Israel with violence – even if indirectly – and supported Palestinian terror. Based on numerous reports, Amr also may have spent years on the payroll of foreign governments hostile to both the U.S. and Israel.

As bad as this sounds, the details appear to be far graver, and the American people must understand what the Biden Administration is attempting here and why. One of the tools the ACLJ has long used to dig deep and get the facts is the Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA).  Under Jordan Sekulow's leadership, our team, including senior counsel in ACLJ's offices in Washington and Jerusalem, has drafted and sent the following FOIA request to the U.S. State Department.  We encourage you to read it to understand what a shocking upheaval this decision is and what is at stake for our ally Israel and for U.S. regional interests.

For reasons we explain in the FOIA request, the position is a significant one. Amr will have access and influence at the highest level. It appears from the reporting that the United States consulted with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas concerning the position, though apparently only notified Israel’s outgoing and incoming government. And, it is apparent that the position’s creation is motivated at least in part by the Biden Administration’s attempt to reverse Trump Administration policies, including closing the U.S. diplomatic mission in Jerusalem and not allowing the PLO to open an office in Washington, D.C.

These actions by the Trump Administration were critical steps that paved the way to stunning and historic advances in Middle East peace and normalization with a number of Arab and Muslim countries. They succeeded precisely because they sent the message that the United States stands with allies who are good actors and downgraded the power that has been handed for decades by the so-called “Peace Process” to nations and groups supporting Islamist terror, like Hamas, the PA, and Hezbollah. Team Biden is moving in exactly the opposite direction – challenging Israel’s sovereignty and rewarding and encouraging (and actually subsidizing) rejectionism and terror. Certainly that appears to be Amr’s approach.

So we are taking action. Here’s a summary of the records we are demanding:

[R]ecords pertaining to the creation of the new position entitled Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs within the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA), the scope of duties for that new position, at whose orders or request that new position was created, the appointment specifically of Hady Amr to that new position, and any steps taken in this process to ensure this new position does not hurt the interests of the United States’ key ally, Israel

And here are some specifics:

• All records of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s communications about the creation of the Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs or Amr’s appointment to that position, including but not limited to emails or text messages with Martin Indyk.
• All records of communications between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Hady Amr.
• Key records about Amr and this new position within the Secretary’s Office (S), the U.S. Embassy in Israel, the office of the Under Secretary of Political Affairs, the Deputy Secretary’s Office (D), or the Chief of Staff’s Office (COS), the Under Secretary for Management (M), the State Department’s Counselor (C), or the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA).
• Records about this maneuver’s legality under U.S. law or treaties, including the Taylor Force Act, Articles 4, 7 and 8 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, or the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.

We will keep you posted as this develops.

If the State Department fails to comply with the law, we will take it to federal court in Washington, DC, again. We will not relent. These issues matter too much. Stand with us. Join our ongoing fight to hold the Biden Administration accountable.