I previously posted about the latest rash of scandalous photos coming out of Afghanistan showing U.S. military atrocities under Obama’s command, and wondering if the media would pick up on it the way they did when it was Bush’s army… Well, here’s a twist I wasn’t expecting: yes, one of the U.S. media, Rolling Stone, [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic, cast a spotlight on yet another disgustingly overt example of pure bias in the mainstream media, particularly at the anti-Semitic Reuters newswire. He points to a Reuters news item which contains the following despicable sentences: Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian [...]
In the [sparse] reporting of the Palestinians’ massacre of the Fogel family, several newspapers stand out with their distorted sense of “balance”, i.e., where they feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable describing the barbarity of the Palestinians without at least taking a swipe or two at the Israelis, no matter how patently irrelevant or disgustingly disrespectful it comes [...]
Jerusalem, Palestine…?
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If you were to look at the U.S. Consulate web site for Jerusalem, you might be forgiven for thinking that Jerusalem is the capital of a Palestinian state, rather than the capital of Israel. After all, the page is virtually entirely about Palestinians, Islam, and nothing to do with Israel. You won’t see mention of Israel, of any Israeli officials, of anything having to do with Israel.
Instead, you see a picture with the words “al-Quds” in the background, information about U.S. support for the Palestinian Authority, about a new library in Bet Jala, about a Tawjihi ceremony, about an-Najah University, about the skills of Palestinian teachers… you’ll see a message wishing everyone a “Ramadan Kareem”
Perhaps most telling, you’ll see that the site is available in English and Arabic… not Hebrew… and that the consulate is listed as “Gaza E-Consulate”.
Atlas Shrugs blog wrote about this a month ago and one of its readers sent in the following response from Gil Elan, the Executive Director of the Southwest Jewish Congress:
Dear Gail,
Actually…since 1967 the US Consulate in Jerusalem has been, with full agreement between the Israeli and US governments, the de-facto “embassy” to the Palestinians in the West bank and Gaza. As far as I know the Consul General in Jerusalem and his staff have no direct connection to the US embassy in Tel-Aviv, are not subordinate to the US ambassador to Israel and report directly to Washington. In fact – there are frequent stories of opposing reports or analysis coming to DC from Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. Israelis do not normally (except in emergencies) receive services at the consulate in Jerusalem. There is a separate consulate office in Tel-Aviv. American citizens can get service in either.
So for all intents and purposes, the US Consulate General in West Jerusalem is officially a separate State Dept delegation representing US interests in another Arab entity (though I think that the Marines who guard both buildings rotate between them). And no – as far as I know there is no other place in the world were this kind of “arrangement” exists.
Logical…no. But this is the Middle East – don’t look for logic!
In my opinion your question, Gail, should not be about the Consulate General, but about why the US has not yet moved its embassy from Tel-Aviv to the Capital of Israel – Jerusalem…despite Congress’s overwhelming and ongoing support for it.
Thanks,
GilGil Elan
Executive Director
Southwest Jewish Congress
Regardless of the logic or lack of logic, the fact that Israel would debase itself by agreeing to such an arrangement is reprehensible and perhaps it’s time for Netanyahu to start reassessing such a foolish position. Allowing something like this would be like allowing a deranged kidnapper to indefinitely believe that the kid is really his; it’s the kind of concession or accommodation that just doesn’t do any good for anyone. And, especially when coupled with the refusal of the U.S. and other countries to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by moving their embassies there, this is even more of an outrage.
Until something is done, this is the kind of crap we’ll have to look at on the site of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem:
