Biden administration memo said to detail ‘reset’ of Palestinian relations

The Biden administration will reportedly push for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines, with mutually agreed-upon land swaps, returning US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to more traditionally held positions from which former president Donald Trump departed.

A memo titled “The US Palestinian Reset and the Path Forward,” obtained by Abu Dhabi-based The National reveals that the Biden administration is planning on announcing a $15 million aid package to Palestinians in coronavirus-related humanitarian assistance in late March or early April.

The memo purportedly drafted by US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr also details plans to roll back various Trump policies that Washington believes made reaching a two-state solution more difficult such as US legitimization of the settlement enterprise.

Hady Amr (US State Department)

The letter discusses “rolling back certain steps by the prior administration that bring into question our commitment or pose real barriers to a two-state solution, such as country of origin labeling.”

It is referring to a last-minute policy change announced by Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo before leaving office, which required all US exports from the settlements to be labeled as having been “made in Israel.”