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Michael Walsh

Rubio Must Realign Office of Palestinian Affairs

On 20 January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that declared that “the foreign policy of the United States shall champion core American interests and always put America and American citizens first.”

In accordance with that directive, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now need to re-evaluate the strategic alignment of how US diplomatic missions are organized around the world. That includes the Office of Palestinian Affairs.

The Office of Palestinian Affairs is a special case among US diplomatic missions. That is because the United States Government does not formally recognize the Palestinian Territories as an independent state, dependency, or area of special sovereignty. Nor does it put it in the “other” category like Taiwan. It is simply an unrecognized entity.

Under the Biden Administration, the US Department of State established an Office of Palestinian Affairs to manage relations with Palestinians.

Although that office is embedded within the US Embassy in Israel, it “reports directly to Washington.” This means that it effectively functions as an independent diplomatic mission. It even has its own mission strategic plan.

In the eyes of the prior administration, the Office of Palestinian Affairs was viewed as a novel solution to a sticky political problem. However, it had unintended consequences. One was increased conceptual confusion.

To comply with the America First Policy Directive to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Rubio will now need to take a closer look at the Office of Palestinian Affairs.

To assess its alignment with the strategic choices of the new administration, Secretary Rubio will need The White House to answer two fundamental questions:

  1. Should the US Government recognize the Palestinian Territories as an independent state, dependency, or area of special sovereignty;
  2. Should the Office of Palestinian Affairs count as a diplomatic post?

For argument’s sake, let’s assume that the Trump Administration answers “no” to both of those questions.

If so, then Secretary Rubio will need to realign the Office of Palestinian Affairs with those strategic choices.

In search of alignment, Secretary Rubio should consider a wide array of approaches.

One novel approach would be for the US Department of State to draw a distinction between diplomatic missions that count as functional offices and those that count as diplomatic posts.

Armed with this new policy, Secretary Rubio could re-designate the Office of Palestinian Affairs as a functional office tasked with the management of unofficial relations with the Palestinians.

In terms of strategic planning, Secretary Rubio could direct the Office of Palestinian Affairs to continue to produce its own mission strategic plan. However, he could specify that it be referred to as an Integrated Mission Strategy.

Such pragmatic diplomatic management moves would not only reduce the conceptual confusion that currently exists in the organization of US diplomatic posts. They would align with current diplomatic practice at higher organizational levels back in Washington.

At headquarters, a distinction is already drawn between functional and geographic bureaus.

About the Author
Michael Walsh is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He conducts research on the strategic, operational, and tactical gaps that exist in American foreign policy.
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