Michael “What, me worry?” Oren
This is pretty stunning. Everything that Ali Abunimah said about international isolation 2 years ago is here; it makes you wonder what will happen to public opinion in another two years. Barak Ravid in Haaretz, writing about a conclave of 100 Israeli diplomats this week in Jerusalem. Read past the headline quote to the crashing democracy image, the importance of Beit Shemesh.
Ambassadors who arrived from European states and North America talked about how they are becoming increasingly hated and unwanted, while ambassadors from Asia and Africa spoke optimistically about new markets and opportunities for cooperation in areas such as agriculture and medicine. …
Yet, in contrast to past annual gatherings, one topic kept coming up during all the discussions, this being an understanding that developments in Israel’s domestic arena have a negative impact upon the country’s reputation overseas. Within hours, ultra-Orthodox men who spit at children in Beit Shemesh, or who threaten women bus passengers in Ashdod, cause huge diplomatic damage to Israel around the world. To garner the extent of such damage, it sufficed to read one of this week’s The New York Times editions, which carried three lengthy reports about discrimination of women in Israel, Egypt and Somalia.
Many ambassadors raised this issue during meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and in additional discussions. “Once, Israel’s democracy was our calling card around the world,” reflected one ambassador. “Today, there’s a feeling that this is no longer the case.”
The ambassadors noted that their workdays are filled up with efforts to explain legislative initiatives against left-wing organizations and mosques, and acts of religious and right-wing extremism. Overseas, these are not marginal subjects. Quite often, the ambassadors say, we don’t have answers to questions referred to us.
Nor did the ambassadors really come away from this annual meeting with answers….
[Netanyahu gov’t is divided on these issues]
The Foreign Ministry’s view is that developments in the region have foreclosed any prospect of renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians during 2012. Despite this pessimistic forecast, a virtual consensus has congealed among the ambassadors and also Netanyahu aides Yaakov Amidror and Yitzhak Molcho, holding that the continued diplomatic impasse hurts Israel.
One slide pointed to an equally worrisome trend of “erosion in the special relationship with the U.S.” In a separate panel, Washington Ambassador Michael Oren spoke about how relations with the American government are strong and close, and even proudly divulged public opinion poll results which show that support for Israel is stable in the U.S. public.
Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul-General in New York, a wizard when it comes to polls, interrupted Oren and proposed that he look at the opinion surveys more closely. “Our image in America is worse than it was in the past, particularly among the young educated sectors,” stated Aharoni, and explained that once the data are broken down, it appears that entire sectors in the U.S. might not have transferred their allegiance to the Palestinians, yet have simply lost enthusiasm for Israel.
On a private note, I’ve always wondered about the moral paucity of, say, South Korea.
Everytime I see their ambassadors I just see them smiling sucking up to the Israelis.
I think it may be part of what Jeff Goldberg once referred to as the phenomenon when ‘when you’re philosemitic in a certain way, you’re anti-Semitic’.
He meant this in the way when foreign diplomats from places far away come up smiling to Jews and say, without irony to malevolance, that ‘we know you Jews run this town, we want to be friends with you. What can we help you with?’.
It’s meant as a good gesture, but the underlying assumptions are the same as that of an anti-Semities(even if I think recognizing Jewish power does not necessarily mean you hate Jews, it depends how you use that knowledge and if you moderate it, or if you think that the Protocols was a mild version, which would be another thing).
I have whiffs of this when it comes to several Asian nations.
They just do not care about human rights. A case can be made that neither does the U.S., but South Korea is not America. It’s more like a mid-sized European country and I found some of those countries to be far better on human rights, like Spain for example(even if it has flaws too, of course).
And where is the civil societies of these countries?
Is there even a BDS branch there? Is there even any interest?
I wouldn’t be surprised if these Asian nations continue to trade with Israel as if nothing’s happening if Apartheid goes into hyperdrive 10 years from now or so.
Am I stereotyping Asian nations? I hope not, I hope I am wrong.
But then again, I just read that S. Korea bought up 75 % of all the farmland in Mocambique for themselves to feed their population for the next 99 years.
As bad as the invasions of Latin American countries were by the U.S. to gain access to the bananamarkets and whatnot, even that would seem like a blow that America would not do; essentially starving the population and grabbing the farmland for themselves.
And besides, America is a superpower, who tend to be corrupt, like China. What excuse does S. Korea have?
A digression, perhaps, but nontheless a point to be made if BDS is really going to go global. Someone ought to take a look at the OECD parts of Asia and ask if there is something to be done, because those societies are very much navel-gazing from what I can see. Certainly their governments does not care one iota about Apartheid and neither do their civil socities. Is it a lack of education? I do not know.
Israel and the AIPAC-controlled MSM has been very careful to keep these Jewish Taliban Haredi out of the headlines
Nearly everything we see is of Israel is the sanitized Potemkin Village village approved by Israeli progaganda – where all illegal settlements are Jewish neighborhoods (remarkably similar to upscale SoCal properties), all spokespeople are speaking ‘American’, and everything is wonderful about the Start-Up Nation that sucking America dry politically and militarily, and which Israel btw controls.
I say let these skinheads out of the bag and let America see what the Palestinians have to contend with – guaranteed 20% favoribility drop for American support of Israel
yeah, it must be hard to answer for serial war-crimes, apartheid, state racism, oppression and removal of indigenous people, sanctioning of religious extremism, institutional corruption and so on
In this report or condensation, the sense , sadly, is that Israel is making MORE economic ties with countries that VOTE in UNGA, protecting itself from any UNGA BDS movement w.r.t. Palestine.
Ambassador says that poll in USA does not show increase in pro-Palestine (but doesn’t say what the degree/amount of pro-Palestine sentiment IS) but merely increase in anti-Israel or decrease in pro-Israel. OK, the young Jews phenomenon. Ron Paul.
Pro-Palestine has a lot of work ahead of it.