For months we’ve been crowing on the site about how the Netanayahu/Lieberman government is hurting American Jewish support for, and identification with, Israel. Well now we’re getting confirmation from the horse’s mouth.
An internal memo from Nadav Tamir, the Israeli General Counsel in Boston, to the Israeli Foreign Ministry charges that the Netanyahu government is hurting the US/Israeli relationship. You might remember Tamir from when he compared Avigdor Lieberman to Austrian facist Jorg Haider. Now Tamir is warning the Netanyahu government that they are weakening the relationship between American Jews and Israel by continuing to thumb their nose at the American administration. From a Haaretz report:
"The manner in which we are conducting relations with the American administration is causing strategic damage to Israel," Tamir wrote. "The distance between us and the U.S. administration has clear consequences for Israeli deterrence."
"There are American and Israeli political elements who oppose Obama on an ideological basis and who are ready to sacrifice the special relationship between the two countries for the sake of their own political agendas," the consul general in Boston wrote. . .
"The administration is making an effort to lower the profile of the disagreements, and yet it is [Israel] that is the source which is highlighting the differences."
Tamir believes that "the public spat with the U.S. over the issue of a settlements freeze has alienated a significant number of American Jewish supporters." He sums the current perception of Israel in the Unites States: "Nowadays, there is a sense in the United States that Obama is forced to deal with the obduracy of the governments in Iran, North Korea, and Israel." Wow, that’s some company. I guess the "special relationship" is suddenly looking not so special.
Update to this post: Avigdor Lieberman has recalled Tamir to Jerusalem to "clarify" his memo.
I’m more than ready to sacrifice the special relationship. My agenda is called I’m an American. But couldn’t this article just be hasbara of the left? If they force Bibi out would his successor be better? Or just smoother? Personally I preferred Ariel Sharon: he unapologetically showed the world the true nature of the bandit state .
I don’t think Benny Yahoo is exactly bashful.
Obama promised a Jewish state, “easing up the throttle” is pragmatically what those realist zionists in the USA see as the strategy to pull it off. still they can’t hold back the pitbulls…
Israel may be opening a breach with the Obama administration, but too many members of Congress are rushing to form up on the Israeli side of the gap.
There has been a bloc of true believers and retainers in Congress for a long time. The change in the political environment is that their “[rush] to form up on the Israeli side of the gap” has yielded little while raising the profile of the Lobby significantly: a strategic defeat.
they don’t want to close the door on potential or real financial support for their ‘next’ altruistic* ‘made in the usa’ political campaign…
I believe that has always been the case….Presidents would try to move American Israeli policy and Congress (especially the House) would bend over backwards to mitigate. If I remember right, even as Bush was announcing the Road Map there was a Congressional delegation in Israel delivering a “not to worry message”. Again, if you follow the Mideast Subcommittee of what is now the Foreign Relations Committee….that committee appears always primed to do the Lobby’s bidding. Representatives who buck this system need all the support they can get. Several years ago when I looked at the makeup of this committee, it appeared very unrepresentative…..weighted with Jewish Democrats and Floridian Republicans….it was hard for me to see how anything to do with settlements, the occupation or credible investigations would ever materialize from this subcommittee.
Israel has its own interests. The USA has its own interests. Each should act accordingly.
I just wish my own government would not conflate the two as if they were the same. Too much to ask? I guess so. The last time a POTUS stood up as an American First–he was murdered not long after. Perhaps just a coincidence.
Interesting story from Iran:
“Iran reportedly kills seven lawyers
Seven lawyers in Tabriz and Mashhad who had been representing young Iranians detained in post-presidential election protests have been killed by the Iranian authorities in recent days, according to sources in Iran.
link to jpost.com
Interesting to see how Roger Cohen and the ret of the progressives will spin this.
You cannot tell much by public protocols and sword rattling between administrations. Especially when the lobby is busy writing speeches and letters for representatives, and writing papers on policy talk points for those in power. Or when an official in Washington describes Israeli participation in the war room like a bordello on a Saturday night it is so filled with “representatives and experts from Israel.” When pac money and particularly influence of access to such is kept by lobby gatekeepers – I mean the list of influence is endless. not to mention the external forces of “community activity,” think tanks, Middle Eastern Institutes, newspapers, specialty magazines, and an echo chamber on the web, etc.
Before the US Congress will stop rubber-stamping Israel’s activities, Israel would have to
toss Palestinians into ovens, and even so, nothing would happen until the ovens burning
appeared on YouTube–which it wouldn’t; of if it did, they would vanish overnight.
“Iran, North Korea, and Israel.” He’s quite a one for the melodrama, did he go on to include Mordor and the Klingons? But it’s good news, noticing Israel may not have a blank cheque forever.
Maybe the relationship Mr Tamir referred to is the one regarding the American people, not the politicos. America is basically racist and, given the opportunity, will vilify the Jews. Presently the liberal left and the conservative Christians would not leap to this but Israel should be very careful to let this currently sleeping dog lie. I assume we are all paying attention to the racism being fomented by the likes of Limbaugh, Dobbs and Beck. The same rabble-rousers have made life uncomfortable for people of hispanic descent in this country. Are the lynch mobs awake yet?
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