The Biden administration has reportedly been warned by Israeli officials against intervening in the ongoing conflict at Jerusalem’s holy sites.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan was told by his Israeli counterpart Meir Ben-Shabbat that “international intervention is a reward to the Palestinian rioters and those who back them who were seeking international pressure on Israel,” Axios reported Monday. The White House left Ben-Shabbat’s reported comment out of their call readout.
This is the first major crisis between Israel and the Palestinians that the Biden administration has had to deal with. Despite their resistance to any U.S. role in the crisis, the Israelis took the steps requested by the U.S. to de-escalate the situation.
Sullivan expressed his concern about the Israeli response to the Al-Aqsa Mosque protest, which escalated into a riot.
Sullivan, according to the readout, “encouraged the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations” being held on Monday.
Ben-Shabbat reportedly responded by ensuring that Israel is handling the conflict “from a position of sovereignty and responsibility regardless of Palestinian provocations.”
The tensions in the conflict soared over the climax of a decades-long legal fight surrounding the legal ownership rights of East Jerusalem apartments. Courts ruled that the Sheikh Jarrah apartments belonged to the Jewish owners who were forced out by the Jordanians during the 1948 War of Independence. Under a 1970 Israeli law, Jews are allowed to reclaim East Jerusalem land they owned before 1948.
Israel’s Supreme Court postponed a key ruling Monday in one of the legal cases, citing the heightened tensions.
In response to the decision, violent riots broke out on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam. Both Hamas, the terrorist organization that governs the Gaza strip, and Fatah, the political party that dominates the Palestinian Authority, have called for increased violence against Israel in the wake of tensions.
This is an excerpt from The Daily Caller.
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