Biden renames US Ambassador to Israel ‘Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza,’ then quickly reverses course
JAN 21, 2021 8:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER
Despite reversing the change, the import of this is clear: the Biden administration is going to go even farther than the Obama administration in its hostility to Israel, and is going to block its attempts to assert its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
“Biden Reverses on Change to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Twitter Name to Include West Bank and Gaza,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, January 20, 2021:
The Biden administration on Wednesday reversed a change to the U.S. ambassador to Israel’s Twitter account name to read, “the official Twitter account of the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza” after a Washington Free Beacon report highlighting the shift.
For a time on Wednesday, the official Twitter feed for the U.S. ambassador to Israel had its title changed to add “the West Bank and Gaza,” territories the United States has for decades avoided taking a stand on due to ongoing peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. The title change sparked an outcry online, including among Republican lawmakers, and was quietly changed back to read only, “U.S. ambassador to Israel.” The State Department would not comment on the initial change or why it was changed back to its original form.
Embassy officials have speculated that the title was inadvertently changed by Twitter due to a technical glitch when the accounts were switched from the Trump administration over to the Biden administration. The Free Beacon could not confirm the veracity of these claims.
“The U.S. doesn’t have ambassadors to any other disputed territory in the world. Singling out Israel, once again, is wrong,” said Len Khodorkovsky, former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. “Instead of building on all the progress that’s been made toward peace in the Middle East, the Biden administration seems to be reversing course toward the failed policies of the Obama years.”
During the Obama administration, former ambassador Dan Shapiro was referred to in official communications as the “U.S. Ambassador to Israel.”
While President Joe Biden has said he would maintain the U.S. embassy facility in Jerusalem—which former President Donald Trump moved in a historic policy shift—it is likely he will put greater emphasis on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have long been stalled. Biden also will grapple with the last administration’s decision to recognize the Golan Heights area along the Israel-Syria border as officially part of the Jewish state…. |
