U.S. Ambassador To Israel Meets With Palestinians In Shift
David Friedman Image by Nikki Casey
(JTA) — The State Department characterized the inclusion of the U.S. ambassador to Israel in meetings with Palestinian officials as an “upgrading” in relations.
David Friedman joined Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, at a meeting Tuesday with Palestinian officials in Jerusalem. The Palestinian peace negotiators reportedly requested that the meeting be held in Jerusalem because they did not want Friedman, a supporter of Israeli settlements and the U.S. official tapped to deal with Israel, to come to Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority.
Including Friedman marks a shift in U.S. policy in place during both Bush and the Obama administrations that viewed the American consul in Jerusalem as responsible for relations with the Palestinians and the ambassador in Tel Aviv as responsible for relations with Israel.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters during a regular briefing later the same day that the Palestinian negotiators “welcomed” Friedman, and that his presence at the meeting “raises the level and indicates just how important it is for this administration to try to come to some sort of peace agreement.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
