White House Urging Israel to Keep Lid on Tensions

Senior officials in the Biden administration have conveyed their concerns to their counterparts in Israel about the potential for disorders and violence in Yerushalayim during the coming festivals of Pesach and Ramadan, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

They fear that the current clashes in Yerushalayim’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood could lead to major trouble, like the confrontations in the capital that touched off the 11-day war between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip last May.

According to reports, Washington is urging the Israeli government to take preemptive action to prevent a recurrence of last year’s eruption, though the requested action was not specified. Last year, the White House was criticized in some circles for being relatively unprepared — as key positions relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian file were still vacant at the time, early in the new administration—and reacted sluggishly to events leading up to the fighting in May.

“We’re trying to urge Israel to act well in advance, so we don’t get to a point where it’s too late and where rogue actors can co-opt the situation on the ground,” a former senior U.S. official said, adding that the Biden administration has had April “circled in their calendars since the beginning of the year.”

The U.S. hopeful that the relatively new full-time ambassador to Israel Tom Nides and Acting Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert can work together to help prevent an escalation of tensions.

A senior Israeli official told the Times that they are aware of Washington’s concerns and that security forces are preparing for the period “with the utmost sensitivity.”

On Tuesday, a senior government official with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Bahrain warned that “a deterioration in Sheikh Jarrah could lead to a regional escalation. There is a responsibility to prevent escalations that can lead to very difficult things… it’s no joke.”