(JTA) — Joe Biden told supporters that he would leave the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem if he is elected president.
Speaking to New England supporters at a virtual fundraiser from his Delaware home, the presumptive Democratic nominee responded to a reporter’s question that the embassy “should not have been moved” from Tel Aviv by the Trump administration without being part of a larger peace agreement in the Middle East.
“But now that it’s done, I would not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv,” he told the Zoom audience of 250 on Wednesday. “But what I would do, I would also … reopen our consulate in East Jerusalem to engage the Palestinians and my administration will urge both sides to take steps to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive.”
Biden spoke from his basement rec room, where he has been holding virtual events and appearances throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
A day earlier Tony Blinken, Biden’s senior foreign policy adviser, had said said that reversing President Donald Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv “would not make sense practically and politically.” Blinken was speaking during a webinar hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
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