The establishment of the American Consulate that will serve the residents of the Palestinian Authority is provoking political controversy in Israel. Now it turns out that even among the president's party there is criticism of the move, Israel Hayom reports.
Binyamin Council Chairman Israel Gantz has been in the United States for the past few days in order to counter what he defines as an "alarming trend in advancing the possibility of establishing two states in the near future." He met with a number of Republican officials and was received there as a guest of honor. He also met with members of President Biden's party.
At the Republican congressional convention, Gantz was the main guest speaker, addressing some 60 Republican members of Congress. He thanked the support for Israel and Judea and Samaria, laid out the settlement position in light of the trends of the new administration, and stressed to those present that the promotion of the two countries would harm Israel and the United States. Members of Congress sought to strengthen him and the settlers. With some of them, follow-up meetings and reciprocal visits to Gantz were scheduled.
The surprising move was in meetings held with members of the Democratic Party. Some of them identified with the criticism of the American intention to set up a consulate for the Palestinians in the Israeli capital.
"There is an understanding that this move harms Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, and also harms American sovereignty after the relocation of the embassy at the time was in fact a declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Gantz explained.
A number of members of Congress from the Democratic Party have stated that they intend to act on the issue in the coming days and raise the issue with President Biden in a number of ways, in order for him to reconsider the decision. This is an extraordinary step of domestic criticism of the American president regarding policy to do with Israel.
The head of the Benjamin Regional Council says that "among the Democrats, we found friends with a listening ear and common sense who do not agree to weaken the State of Israel and believe that investment in infrastructures such as roads and electricity in Judea and Samaria should be increased significantly for the benefit of both populations." We talked about the basic needs and found that there was a lot of agreement."
The issue of the Arab takeover of Judea and Samaria by the Palestinian Authority and the European Union was also discussed at the meetings.