The title change was first noticed on Twitter, where it once read simply “U.S. Ambassador to Israel,” but now reads “U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.”
Update: According to the Jerusalem Post, the name has been changed back. An embassy spokesperson told The Post that it “was an inadvertent edit.”
The title change was first noticed on Twitter, where it once read simply "U.S. Ambassador to Israel," but now reads "U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza."
The change came shortly after President Joe Biden was inaugurated to be the 46th President in ceremonies on Wednesday at the US Capitol.
The expanded title represents a shift in American policy towards the Jewish state, which has been warm for decades but became even closer under President Trump, who recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and played an instrumental role in striking peace deals between Israel and a number of Arab states which have refused to recognize Israel's legitimacy since its founding.
Israelis were grateful for Trump's support, naming a sports team, a Golan Heights village, and a planned Jerusalem train station after him.
The change signals that the Biden administration will not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza, disputed territories which Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt respectively during the Six Day War in 1967. No countries recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territories, expecting them to be eventually relinquished to form a sovereign Palestinian state.
While Biden has a long history of friendliness towards the Jewish state, the general tone of the Democratic Party towards Israel shifted under President Barack Obama, who had a notoriously difficult relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, going as far as to abstain from a UN Security Council resolution demanding Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank less than a month before exiting office.
Nevertheless, the US government maintained its strong military support for Israel, with Obama signing the largest military aid packages to the country until Trump further expanded aid. It is expected that Biden will continue such support.
Biden has not commented on the change.
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