J Street welcomes the reversal by the Trump administration of its apparent decision to close the PLO diplomatic mission in Washington.

As we stated last week when the original decision became public, the move would have been self-defeating and could only have harmed the administration’s efforts to promote viable negotiations toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The administration is still advising the PLO office to “limit its activities to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians,” but says even that limitation should be lifted after 90 days if progress on Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy has been made.

We are concerned by what this episode reveals about decision-making at the State Department on important foreign policy issues. But we are relieved that this time commonsense appears to have prevailed.