NY State Senator Storobin (l) with an Israeli general, center, and the senator’s chief of staff (r)
New York state senator David Storobin’s office responded today to criticism over the senator carrying a weapon and wearing an IDF uniform in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian border.
Storobin aide Steven Stites emailed:
The ginned-up controversy about the Senator’s photo on the Syrian border is quite amusing, especially to folks who have been to Israel.
As Israelis know all too well, the Syrian border is a hostile area. Visitors there are required to don a uniform and carry a gun. Even members of the Knesset do so. There are snipers on the other side. If they see an unarmed person not in uniform, they may assume it’s a leader of some kind, and that person could be a target.
This claim from Storobin’s office seems to have no basis in fact. Israeli journalist Joseph Dana was just on the Syrian border and says:
This is all insane. I have no idea what area he is talking about in fact. I mean, I was just there. Five meters from the border and everything was very calm. Of course, the other side of the border was being shelled. There were Israeli Jews and Druze all around, watching what was happening over in Syria.
This guy seems to be talking about a different place entirely.
I contacted Stites for more information and he says the IDF advised Storobin to carry a weapon and wear an Israeli military uniform. Stites wrote in an email:
They were urged to do so as a matter of safety. As to whether it’s a requirement, I’m not sure, though that’s the impression I got. I can say that if I was told to do something like that for my own safety, I’d do it — wouldn’t you?
We will follow up to confirm this with the IDF.
Senator Storobin was not at “the Israeli-Syrian border”.
He was in Syria.
The Golan Heights is part of Syria, although occupied by Israel since 1967.
He was near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (which is part of Syria) and the rest of Syria.
My first reaction to this is that the state senator or whoever is speaking for him
is full of it.
The Syrian border was the most quiet one for decades.
But, Syria is in the middle of a war and a whole lot of people over there
would like nothing more than to cause some incident at the border
the IDF might have decided to play it safe.
What probably happened though is that the IDF commander or whoever was in charge decided that the honored guest would enjoy playing soldier, and he was right.
Bullshit excuse.
He must have gotten some flack for it and is wealsing out.
As I said, you think he should have worn a suit and tie so the Syrians would know who to shoot?
I would have thought that Storobin might face some legal issues. He’s not some run-of-the-mill American claiming duel-nationality. He’s an elected official in New York State and subject to the New York State Constitution, which requires an oath of office that includes a pledge to support the United States Constitution. Donning the uniform of another state could arguably (indeed, almost certainly) imply a violation of that pledge of support.