Comments by GI’s Director, Gadi Baltiansky in Haaretz article (published 24th November, 2020)
“Blinken and Sullivan are no Kushner and Greenblatt. They don’t have to learn the issue, they already know them very well.”
“Blinken will be a strong secretary of state because he’s so close to the President-elect. All of those expected to be named to the foreign policy and defense teams are experienced, well-informed and with views that are close, if not, identical to the views of the president.”“The Israeli government will have to get used to a State Department and White House that uses the language of moral values and human rights, in addition to core interests and security needs and threats,” after the transactional Trump era.“For the peace camp in Israel, the biggest challenge when dealing with the Biden administration will be to convince them of the urgency of Israeli-Palestinian peace.”“While Biden, Blinken and their team don’t need to be convinced that the two-state solution is the only solution, there’s a question of whether they’ll be motivated to work to change the status quo without an external catalyst.”
“I worry that if there isn’t an immediate danger of violence or opportunity for a dramatic peace breakthrough, they’ll try to keep the situation as it is – and that’s not enough. We need to make it clear that unless a decision to move forward is taken, we’ll move backward.”
Read the full article, published November 24, 2020, here.
