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2021-02-22 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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As Biden puts Mideast on backburner, US point-man on conflict seeks small gains
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[IsraelTimes] Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr starts job gunning for improvements to Paleostinian economy and renewing bilateral ties, but is not giving up on two-state solution.
US President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
 ...Candidate for president in 2020. I had the great honor of being arrested with our UN Ambassador on the streets of Soweto, trying to get to see him on Robbens Island ...
’s point-man on the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict is concentrating on restoring aid to the Paleostinians and taking a go-it-slow approach to peace prospects in line with the administration’s stated goal of seeking gradual reform.
Continued from Page 2
Not a bad approach, once President Trump showed the limits of the situation. During his first several weeks on the job, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Paleostinian Affairs Hady Amr has been focused on reinstating US aid to the Paleostinians removed during the last administration and renewing ties with Ramallah, a Biden official told The Times of Israel.
"Hady comes from the development world and will be approaching the issue from that lens of improving Paleostinian livelihood," the official said. "But that doesn’t mean it will come at the expense of a two-state solution. That’s still the ultimate goal, whether it happens in this administration or not."
The Biden administration has signaled it will not prioritize dealing with the Middle East conflict. Unlike most of his predecessors, Biden will not appoint a special envoy for the issue, an administration official said.
A look at Amr’s past comments and writing reveals a world-view that has prioritizes interim steps to improve the Paleostinian economy and the quality of life for Paleostinian as two-state solution has grown more remote.
Amr, who has not spoken publicly since assuming the new position, has in the past been bitterly critical of both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former US president Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
for what he says was harmed prospects for a two-state solution — a final settlement in which he deeply believes.
FROM BEIRUT TO WASHINGTON
Just by not being Jewish, Amr differs from many of those appointed by previous administrations to shepherd Israeli-Paleostinian peace efforts.
While he does have Jewish relatives, Amr is a practicing Moslem who was born in Leb
 ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
and grew up in the US.
An economist by trade, Amr consulted for a variety of high-level organizations, including the UN, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum before joining the Clinton administration in 2000 as an analyst in the Defense Department.
He later founded the Washington-based Brookings Institute’s research center in Doha and has worked on-and-off for the think tank during the Bush and Trump administrations.
After Obama was elected, Amr returned to the government, first serving in the Homeland Security Department and later as deputy assistant administrator for the Middle East at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In 2013, he served as deputy to Martin Indyk, Obama’s special envoy for Israeli-Paleostinian negotiations.
Amr focused on economic issues relating to the Paleostinians, advancing "projects like 3G networks for Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
or sewage systems in the West Bank," according to Axios. During the 2014 Gaza war, he was tasked with facilitating US humanitarian aid to the coastal enclave.
He has built close ties with Israel’s deputy national security adviser Reuven Azar in addition to the former military liaison to the Paleostinians Yoav (Poli) Mordechai, sources close to Amr said.
An Israeli official who’s been in contact with Amr since his appointment described him to Axios as "intelligent with a very sober view of what’s achievable at the moment."
On the Paleostinian side, he has received similar praise.
"We would always joke that new American envoy would never know the difference between Sheikh Jarrah and Kafr ’Aqab [two neighborhoods in East Jerusalem]," an official told Axios. "He knows. We haven’t spoken to the Americans for years and finally there is someone who listens."
FIRST DO NO HARM
Since returning to government last month, Amr has held a series of introductory calls with senior Israeli and Paleostinian officials, which he has used as an opportunity to explain the Biden administration’s outlook on the conflict.
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken has put it on a number of occasions, it’ll be one of "first do no harm," rather than high-stakes gambits meant to quickly put the conflict to bed.
According to sources familiar with the administration’s thinking, Biden is not expected to push for a settlement building moratorium of the type demanded by former president Barak Obama, which led to a failed round of peace talks in 2010.
At the same time, Jerusalem will not likely receive free rein on the issue either, the sources told ToI.
Amr’s job includes crafting the US policy reset on settlements, Axios reported, after four years in which the Trump administration largely avoided confrontation with Israel over the issue and even appeared to legitimize the phenomenon.
On this issue, Amr wrote in 2017 that the Trump administration should avoid trying to negotiate with Israel regarding what type of settlement building to tolerate and what type to condemn, calling it a "morass which could send the United States deep into a never-ending negotiation vortex."
"Moreover, even if Netanyahu and Trump could agree on terms, Israel’s pro-settlement coalition would balk. Instead, Trump should leverage his good relationship with Netanyahu to privately press him for as much restraint as possible without forcing an explicit agreement," he added then.
Washington has already issued several statements coming out against settlement building, annexation, and home demolitions by Israel and incitement to violence and payments to security prisoners by the Paleostinians.
On the Paleostinian side, Amr has been tasked with fulfilling the administration’s pledge to restore relations with the Paleostinians. In the short-term this has meant working to unlock at least some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that was frozen by the Trump administration, said two sources familiar with the matter.
Next, will be the reopening of diplomatic offices in Jerusalem and Washington, which were shuttered by Trump.
Each of these moves will face legal complications, as US law severely limits bilateral relations with the Paleostinians so long as they join United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
bodies, pursue probes against Israel at the International Criminal Court or pay stipends to security prisoners with blood on their hands.
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-02-22 01:04||
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