Most Israeli diplomats know nothing about Jews or Zionism
Lieberman is not a member of the opposition who can make do with expressing his frustration at will.
By Israel Harel Tags: Israel news Avigdor LiebermanIn the middle of a visit to Dimona, Avigdor Lieberman was summoned for urgent consultations with the prime minister. But his security people, he later told friends, prevented him from traveling at night using the shortest route. When he insisted, he was told that the ban also applies to pilots from the nearby Nevatim air base. The stunned foreign minister protested: I have an armored car and enhanced security; the road to my home in Nokdim (a West Bank settlement) ought to be more dangerous than a road through the Negev. But it didn't help. Those are the orders, he was told.
Two weeks passed, and Lieberman once again complained - this time, during a gathering for Israeli diplomats overseas. "I saw several ambassadors," he said, "whose identification with the other side is so great that they always want to justify and explain it ... There must be no bootlicking and self-abnegation."
Has Lieberman requested a cabinet discussion on the law-enforcement agencies' failure to eliminate the security risk to travelers on that road through the Negev, or the arms and drug smuggling, the protection racket, the takeover of lands in the Negev and the sabotage of water and electricity lines there? The answer is no. Did he categorically demand that the public security minister, who used to command the police's southern district, impose Israeli sovereignty on the Negev? If he did, there is certainly no sign of it.
Lieberman is not a member of the opposition who can make do with expressing his pain and frustration over our loss of control over the Negev, or over ambassadors who, in his words, bootlick the nations of the world. He is a senior minister in the Israeli government, and to a far greater extent than most other ministers, he has the power to change things in this country - first and foremost, in the Foreign Ministry and the police. After all, he only has to wink and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, a member of the party Lieberman heads, will hasten to do his bidding.
Diaspora Jews have been complaining for years about Israeli representatives who represent Israel weakly or even unwillingly. Some even identify with most of the Palestinians' claims. An intellectual who immigrated here from Europe told me of one Israeli ambassador who was close to Leila Shahid, a senior PLO official. At a meeting with intellectuals, Shahid claimed that in 1948, the Haganah prestate militia conquered Palestine, which was then an independent state, and perpetrated ethnic cleansing. The ambassador, who was sitting in the audience, remained silent. It was a local intellectual, an ardent leftist, who got up to refute Shahid's lies. A veteran Foreign Ministry official confirmed this story and added that two years ago he witnessed an identical situation - this time involving a different ambassador.
Rebukes, however justified, are not the solution. The Foreign Ministry's fundamental ailments, which include a lack of identification by some officials with the justice of the Jewish state's cause, require a thorough root canal.
Most Foreign Ministry personnel, one former ambassador said, want to serve their country loyally. But they are handicapped by a severe lack of knowledge about the history of the Jewish people and Zionism, and above all, by a lack of leadership. I can't recall, he added, that the current foreign minister ever issued clear and binding written instructions about which precise policies the ministry's envoys are supposed to represent.
When the government is hesitant, unfocused and, with regard to foreign policy, even divided, it's the people in the field who wind up setting policy. This is true even in the most sensitive areas, where the country's leaders would prefer ambiguity to clarity of either word or deed. And it is especially true when the people in the field are serving far away from the centers of power - whether in the Negev or overseas. After all, from the point of view of consciousness, Paris is much closer to Israelis' hearts than a road through the Negev on which they are not even allowed to travel.
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Israeli flag back-dropped by the Dome of the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem. |
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Israel Harel
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If the ambassadors of a nation know nothing about the nation, its people, its culture, and its nationalism, then they aren't true representatives of the nation and they don't deserve to be representing it. How would you feel if your ambassador was some penguin from Antarctica?
Does one not have to pass some sort of test regarding their knowledge, position and love of Israel to become a diplomat, viz, someone who represents the State of Israel in the eyes of the world???
publish and not. your protecting the fatherland.Even in a thousand years they will sing your praises unless of course things change then you might have problems
According to the law of return every Jew living in the Diaspora has the right to do Aliyah and receive immediate citizenship, various financial incentives, a beautiful house in the WB, with swimming pool; etc. My question is how does the Israeli government identify the real Jews from the others who may come for the money? I believe that is not an easy thing to decide. So far many definition have been tried, but I believe it is far from foolproof.
There are liberals, who even while forced to defend the lives of their countrymen,understand that their opponents may have a point or two in their favor; and then there are settler types who are sure that only their extremist views should be considered viable. Between the two groups there is a cognitive void as wide as the Grand Canyon. On the one side there is empathy and a desire to understand, and to find an equitable and sturdy compromise. On the other, only hate, fear and violence are brought to the bargaining table. War or Peace, friends, and every four years you get to chose. Try to do better next time.
It sounds like Israel has some intelligent ambassadors that understand the realities of Israel. The Palestinian position deserves some acceptance by Isralis, before the right wing and Lieberman destroy Israel for good through arrogance and evil deeds.
Israel Harel, the master of the nonsequitur. Jew-hatred has become a mantra of the Left, and Harel hears and sees no evil. Marx uber alles. BWM
Mr. Harel, The real problem, at least in the US, is the gap between the Israeli and American Jewish definition of Judaism. The Jewish American community largely consists of Reform and Conservative jews, who are rejected by the Orthodox establishment in Israel. Moste Jews living in Western countries believe in the separation of State and Church and we have a difficulty understanding things like the recent letter from ex-IDF Rabbis stating that soldiers should give precedence to Halacha over lawful orders. We also have a problem when we read about the 'conquest' of Jerusalem by ultra-Orthodox fanatics, the subsidies to Yeshivot and the general submission to the ultra-orthodox Jewish Taliban. I pity the Israeli diplomats who have to explain that Israel is a liberal, secular and democratic state when so many events in Israel seem to negate this statements.
Yishai, unlike settlers, have never purported to be a "pioneer", nor ever received or expected government subsidies for supporting life-style or housing etc, on land that was not part of complete Israeli concensus. Settlements encroach unnecessarily on the lands and resources of our neighbors, the Pals, and have become a monumental problem, even obstacle to peace.
I thought you were there because the UN re-invented Israel in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people. The Israel re-established not being in any may shape or form that as the Israel described in the book written for Jews by Jews.
- No, no Palestinian state was ever formed because the Palestinians rejected the UN Partition Plan. Wrong! The State of Palestine does exist and as of 30 December 2009, at least 112 out of 192 (58%) sovereign United Nations member states, as well as the Holy See, have formally recognised the state of Palestine as a sovereign state, while a number of others grant some form of diplomatic status to a Palestinian delegation, falling short of full diplomatic recognition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine
Could you just explain precisely what qualifications are required to be an Israeli ambassador, then, Mr. Harel? You have to be a religious with a slavish obedience to extreme right-wing politics? And you have to know the history of the Jewish people? (A real difficulty is that these are incompatible: studying history shows people that there is some justice in the Palestinians' cause.) You might add that an ambassador has to be totally ignorant of the history and aspirations of the 25% of the Israeli population which is not Jewish - or 60% under your definition of "Israel".
Aside from limited knowledge of Jewish and Israeli matters, how many Israeli ambasadors have limited language and communication skills? No point having an ambassador in an English-speaking country whose only non-Ivrit language is Russian or Arabic or French.
I have two questions. One, how are Israeli ambasadors selected? Are they just cronies of the party in power or are they seriously well educated in Israeli and Jewish matters ? Two, which Israeli newspaper do they normally read? Is it Jerusalem Post or one of the other 'positive' dailies, or is it, ahem, Haaretz?
Most of Israels career diplomats know precisely what is happening in todays convoluted Foreign Ministry. However, they keep their distance. For they are what we call passive and in some cases academic folk that do their job as befit a diplomat. Some are more inclined to voice their respective opinions directly to the FM,DM or PM. Some have been on talk-shows, such as in Switzerland or Spain and naturally the US. They defend their country admirably. For normally these talk-shows are rabid accusations against the Jewish State and its place amongst nations or even its right to exist. Unfair as it may sound, I disagree with Mr.Harel.
No, no Palestinian state was ever formed because the Palestinians rejected the UN Partition Plan.
It's not just being Jewish: It's knowledge about and commitment to Judaism. Every religious Jew knows why we are here. It's obvious that others don't.
has got through the military censor. Water pipes and Electricity cables are routinely sabotaged in the Negev. And that even the Foreign Minister is prevented from travelling at night. It appears the resistance in occupied Palestine is learning from Umkonto we sweize (spelling) means Spear of the Nation in Afrikaans. Bloke called Nelson Mandela was in charge of it
Your Jewish because your mother is a Jew. Everyone knows that
Why don't you leave Sheikh Munis, al-Jammasin al-Gharbi, Sarona, or al-Mas`udiyya (all of which were in what is now Tel Aviv) and do your part?
' After all, from the point of view of consciousness, Paris is much closer to Israelis' hearts than a road through the Negev on which they are not even allowed to travel ' Unconciously, an indictment of the whole premise of the Jewish state and an admission of the certainty of its ultimate failure. I, for example, am an American -- and far from Oklahoma. However, bleak as it may be, Oklahoma City is definitely closer to my heart than Paris.
'Shahid claimed that in 1948, the Haganah prestate militia conquered Palestine, which was then an independent state, and perpetrated ethnic cleansing. The ambassador, who was sitting in the audience, remained silent. It was a local intellectual, an ardent leftist, who got up to refute Shahid's lies.' Actually, only one of the three claims mentioned is a lie -- and that not much of one. The UN partition resolution formed a Palestinian state just as it did a Jewish one. It's just that the prospective Palestinian state was overrun by Jordan and Israel before it had a chance to come into being. The author then goes on to suggest that Israel's ambassadors learn 'history.' That's not actually the word he's looking for.
Many years ago, a rising Israeli star was stationed in the US, and he admitted that couldn't defend Israel properly. His name was Yitzhak Rabin. Only Jews who know why they're Jewish- why and how Israel really exists, can defend Israel.
I think the ambassadors are more aware of what Israel looks like when viewed from the rest of the world. See the documentary to understand where your country is headed.
... their choice is nice convenenient arable land in the West Bank, that happens to be Pal ancestral land... ... it's an upside-down world, Israel Harel...