No. The initial escrow payment is a cushion that you pay to the lender or mortgage servicer in anticipation of upcoming tax and insurance bills. It prevents your escrow account from going negative when your mortgage servicer has to pay an annual or semi-annual tax bill only a few months into your mortgage.
The amount paid at closing is not a tax deduction. Over time, as the mortgage servicer actually pays the the tax bills, the money that you paid into the escrow account for property taxes gets disbursed and becomes a tax deductible expense; that is the amount reported to you on Form 1098.
