Hamas War

Monday, August 20, 2012

American State Department versus Jews in Judea-Samaria

Extreme Left Haaretz had a headline yesterday which rings so falsely to me:


I know that it's not true.

It brings me back to an incident I experienced twenty years ago. I've blogged about it before. 

A few months after the Arab murderous terror attack on a bus filled past capacity of my neighbors, men, women and lots of children, who had been traveling to Tel Aviv to a demonstration to encourage then Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir to be strong during the high-pressured Madrid Conference, we had a State Department guest.  It wasn't the first, nor the last, time we had entertained (a rather trite word for the experience of being politely interrogated by spies) various American officials.  Davka, my husband doesn't like to think of them as "spies," but when I explained their visit to my father in those terms they didn't disagree.  "Fact finding" is a euphemism for "spying. " Isn't it?

Here's the exchange which began with my husband's question:
"Why don't you invite Jewish Israelis to your events, like the Independence Day Reception?"
"We're even-handed. We don't invite the terrorist Hamas either."
I immediately reacted:
"Are you comparing us to the Arab terrorists who just murdered my friend Rachella Druk, who's now buried just down here?" And I pointed in the direction of the Shiloh Cemetery.
The guy had nothing to say in response. postscript: For quite a few years after that, we were invited to the Jerusalem Consulate Independence Day Reception. I even attended a few, but never when the date was during the "Three Weeks" when attending festive events is forbidden.
That exchange is even worse than the recent newspaper story.  Putting us Jewish residents of then YESHA in the very same category with Hamas, even though there hadn't been any anti-Arab incidents shows that for the United States State Department our very existence is a violation of something.  Their attitude is the real problem. That ideology that Jews must be restricted, have no civil rights or human rights to live where we wish is racist, discriminatory.  It goes against the very foundation of American Law.

Various American politicians, especially when running for office, visit Israel and even Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.  They mouth platitudes about their support for our inalienable rights to be here.  I don't take these words very seriously any more, because no matter by how much their electoral victory, those pledges never make it with them to office or policy.  Unfortunately, it's just the anti-Jewish policy that stays chiseled into the American State Department. 

Harry Truman could barely override the policy when ordering his United Nations representative to vote for a Jewish State on November 29, 1947, and I don't think that Mitt Romney will really be able to change much if elected.  The classic political comedy Yes, Minister is based on fact.  Remember basic Political Science.  The Executive, president or prime minister, makes decisions, but they are carried out by the civil servants, the permanent employees who have "their way" of doing things.

Presidents and Prime Ministers may change, but the bureaucrats are the true power and the American ones consider people like me to be equivalent to terrorists.  Yes, that's old news.

5 comments:

Clare said...

I once went to a 4th of July celebration, as a substitute for my Leftist boss, at a Jerusalem consulate. The Consul, a gal from Oakland, California, was making her farewells as she was being reassigned to Egypt, where she would "continue the struggle" for the Arabs. The Department of Snakes has never been in support of the Children of Israel in anyway, except for maybe traitors.

Jesterhead45 said...

Seeing how hostile to Jews entrenched establishment orgs such as the State Department and FCO have always been over the years and how willingly subservient to Arab/Muslim-interests they are even today, the day when Western-based Pro-Arab/Muslim groups such as the American State Department and Britsh Foreign and Commonwealth Office no longer exist, will be a day when the world is a step closer to peace.

sheldan said...

Unfortunately, I have had to confront just how anti-Semitic a lot of organizations (especially world organizations) are.

First, the UN (of course). It seems that the UN concentrates on what Israel has done to the exclusion of more egregious violators of human rights. And, due to the fact that Arab and Muslim countries can't reconcile to the fact that Israel is physically in Asia, Israel is forced to beg to be placed in the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG) in order for it to be in a regional grouping. And even then, this membership is not permanent. As a result, Israel may not even be allowed to sit on the Security Council, as it is not a full member of any regional group. Sounds like discrimination against Israel. Or is it discrimination against Jews? Sounds like anti-Semitism to me.

Or take the State Department (as I understand it, they have had a bias for years, but it seems more pronounced in this administration).
How else to explain some of the positions Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (a prospective 2016 presidential nominee?!) has made regarding such issues as settlement building--or Jonathan Pollard? Even when some of those who were there during the case are urging the President to pardon Pollard, Secretary Clinton basically stated that the facts justified a life sentence!

(Don't even try to tell me that Pollard deserved it. I've been on the fence myself on the issue, but when the average sentence for those who did the same thing in service of an ENEMY country don't serve nearly as long as Pollard, what other explanation can you give me other than anti-Semitism--if it had been any other country, would Pollard have served this long?)

Then the administration spokesman can't bring himself to say that Jerusalem is at least the DE FACTO capital of Israel--where the government installations are and where Israel itself has designated, just like other countries. To continue to deny that at least the New City (if not unified Jerusalem) is Israel's capital seems to be giving in to anti-Semitic elements, if not anti-Semitism.

Then there's the long saga about Magen David Adom. The International Red Cross organization violated its dictum about using only the red cross when Muslim countries request, but can't do the same for the red Magen David when Israel does so? And then at best it permits a small Magen David and then insists on a red "crystal"? You know what this looks like.

Then we come to the recent Summer Olympics. All we wanted was a minute of silence at the Opening Ceremonies for the murders at the Olympics 40 years ago. The head of the IOC can't bring himself to do this. But if it were any other country, there was precedent to do this. This again looks like what you think it is.

I am sorry to have gone on this long, but more and more examples came up in my mind. I don't use the "atomic bomb" of anti-Semitism indiscriminately, but I have to call it when I see it. And lately, I see Israel (and by extension, Jews) treated differently than others. I think that's anti-Semitism right there.

So sadly, I think it's going to continue (although I think the State Department wanted to make a point about violence, it went overboard when they use the word terrorist to include widely varying groups). We just have to call it when we observe it so the world knows we're watching.

Alan said...

For sure that the State Department bureaucracy is anti-Israel.

Station Tel Aviv has real "spies" (viz., people passing under fake names/cover stories), just as Mossad has in Washington DC.

Whereas, when State Department guys mentioning their actual real name and job-title sniff around you, that is the same flavor of enquiry as when the Israel Agriculture Attache in Washington passes on to Jerusalem, details he called up the Iowa State Agriculture Department to get.

You didn't think that Israel's sizeable production of cottage-cheese is founded upon a local Great Plains of forage and fodder to feed the cows with, did you?

Batya said...

Claire, Jes', Sheldan, Alan, glad we all agree on this. thanks