PM Bennett and President Biden
PM Bennett and President BidenAvi Ohayon/GPO

Israel last week rejected a proposal by the Biden administration to hold a high-level summit with the Palestinian Authority, three Israeli officials told Barak Ravid of Axios on Wednesday.

According to the report, during a meeting in Washington last week with Israel’s national security adviser Eyal Hulata, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman raised the possibility of holding a five-way summit between Israel, the PA, the US, Egypt and Jordan.

According to the Israeli officials, Sherman proposed the summit of foreign ministers could take place in Washington or in the region.

Hulata said that the Israeli government thinks the conditions on both sides are not ripe for such an initiative and stressed Israel isn't interested in a photo-op that ends with nothing and results in an "expectation crisis."

“We don’t like this idea. Past experience taught us that such an expectation crisis could lead to an escalation on the ground," a senior Israeli official told Ravid.

A State Department spokesperson said, "We have nothing to announce."

Ravid reported that the idea of holding a high-level meeting between Israel and Palestinian officials under the auspices of the Biden administration, Egypt and Jordan had been floated by the White House as early as December of last year.

For months, Israeli officials didn't give a clear answer about the idea, hoping that it would just die down, the Israeli officials said.

But when the issue was raised again by Sherman last week, the Israeli government decided to state its position against it more clearly, the officials added.

An Israeli official said the government doesn’t understand why the Biden administration continues to push for this idea since the chances of a summit happening are extremely low.

The Israel-PA peace process has been not advanced in several years. Past efforts under the Obama administration to broker a peace agreement failed in 2014 when the PA unilaterally applied to join international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.

The Trump administration did not push the sides to talk, with Trump instead unveiling his so-called “Deal of the Century” peace plan. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas was quick to reject the plan, saying it would be relegated to the "dustbin of history."

The Biden administration has renewed ties with the PA and had been crafting a plan aimed at “resetting” US ties with the PA.

In one move, the Biden administration announced it intends to resume aid to UNRWA as well as other aid to the PA which was suspended by the Trump administration.

Senior US and PA officials recently met virtually to renew the US-Palestinian Economic Dialogue for the first time in five years.