Here we are, a week after Israel announced they approved building 1600 housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem while Vice President Biden was visiting.
At first there was a sense of national pride. People in Israel felt good that they weren't anyone's friers (suckers). They showed those Americans. They stuck it to 'em.
And then the back-draft started. Israelis got a whiff of what pissing in the wind smells like when the white house began using the words like embarrassment and crisis. So the rationalizing and excuse making started: "it was just a technical error, no harm no foul."
And this is Israel's essential pr problem. They don't stick to a plan. Israel and her diplomats and academicians are regularly embarrassed and insulted. And what does Israel do? they issue pr that they invented the cherry tomato. Israel flip flops so often they end up looking like the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Pick a position and stick to it. And make it a position of power and danger. Would the white house declare it a crisis if china wiped out a village during a visit from a dignitary? When President Obama stated that he would meet with the Dali Lama China declared itself a victim and that this action would harm relations.
Israel is too needy to deal from a position of strength. And people make arguments of supposed facts and righteous behavior and expect that the world will care. The world cares about power, not field medical units.
So instead of either not making a declaration during a visit by the vice president, or making a declaration and sticking to it and declaring it an internal issue and not open to conversation, Israel has now suspended plans for building the units and begins a new round of negotiations from a position of weakness.
Here's a life lesson: Don't tug on superman's cape.
4 comments:
Israel easily could have had a pleasant visit with Biden and then a month later embarked on the construction project, rather than embarras its staunchest allie. So, either the Israeli leadership was monumentally tactless or this was a calculated move driven by reasons not know to the public. Perhaps Iran is further along with its nuclear program and Israel greatly desires to attack them, but America has held them back? What thinks you way?
I think it was a function of the parliamentary system. The housing portfolio is not held or under the charge of the prime minister. the portfolio is held by one of his allies, who are extreme pro-Jewish, not necessarily pro-Israel.
And when you are raised on the idea that you are better than everyone else it is all too easy to push people's buttons and act like a tough guy. So the minister with that portfolio damaged Israel because he wanted to show his toughness to his constituents who are pro-jew and somewhat anti-israel and anti-america and thought he could get away with it.
I wish it were a calculated plan, but it was just power and ego, in my opinion.
Since then, enough facts have come out to make this thesis erroneous.
The housing announcement was not a housing announcement but a declaration that a future building project, not scheduled to start for 3-4 years, had reached step 4 of the 7 part planning stage. No houses were being built as a result of this announcement.
Meanwhile, as a major EU representative visited 'Aza, the Arabs shot a rocket into Israel and killed a foreign worker. No outrage.
The day after Biden met with the Arabs, they dedicated a public square to a terrorist who murdered dozens of Israelis in 1978. No outrage.
And the response from Obama was very disproportional. Iran has been thumbing their nose at America for a year now. No outrage. There was no legitimate reason for Obama to react the way he did.
Garnel,
all your examples have one thing in common, the bad guys were consistent.
The Palestinians use terror and makes no apologies or excuses. The Iranians make no apologies or excuses for their nuclear program. In fact, both groups are visibly proud of their actions.
The Israelis though are not consistent. One gov't is for settlements, another is against it. They fight wars and then apologize for winning. They are so busy thinking they have to do good p.r. that when a mistake happens they are already negotiating from a position of weakness.
Truth doesn't matter and any argument of global politics based on truth is a waste of time.
Power matters and Israel is always answering the question, Have you stopped beating your wife.
Post a Comment