Biden pledges to resume US assistance to Palestinians

(JNS)—Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that if elected president, he would reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization Diplomatic Mission in Washington, D.C., and restore U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee also reiterated that he would reopen the U.S. consulate in eastern Jerusalem, which primarily serves the Palestinians.

“A priority now for the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace should be resuming our dialogue with the Palestinians and pressing Israel not to take actions that make a two-state solution impossible,” Biden told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement.

“I will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, find a way to reopen the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, and resume the decades-long economic and security assistance efforts to the Palestinians that the Trump administration stopped.”

The Trump administration has virtually cut off all U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority due to Ramallah’s “pay to slay” program, rewarding terrorists and their families. The PLO mission was closed in October 2018.