A dispute is rumbling between Israel and the US Consulate in Jerusalem after a US diplomatic car allegedly tried running over a Defense Ministry security guard recently at an IDF checkpoint in the West Bank. The car had been stopped after the occupants refused to present identification papers.
Israel is also furious that one of the consulate cars was found to have transported a Palestinian without permits between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The identification of American diplomats from the consulate at IDF checkpoints has been a major sticking point for several years.
In January 2008, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria filed complaints with the Foreign Ministry after both US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton and then-consul-general Jacob Walles refused to roll down their windows or open their car doors and show identification papers at a checkpoint.
However, Israel's ire reached a new level after an incident on November 13 in which a five-car convoy of consulate vehicles with diplomatic plates arrived at the Gilboa crossing.
According to a detailed official Israel Police description of the incident obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the drivers refused to identify themselves or open a window or door. The drivers, according to the report, purposely blocked the crossing, tried running over one of the Israeli security guards stationed there and made indecent gestures at female guards.
The entire incident was documented by cameras at the crossing.
Following the incident, the head of the police's Security Department, Lt.-Cmdr. Meir Ben-Yishai, convened a meeting on November 18 at police headquarters in Jerusalem with the regional security officer at the consulate, Tim Laas. Also present were officials from the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, and the regional security officer at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Dan Power.
According to a protocol of the meeting, obtained by the Post, Ben-Yishai said he assumed the drivers of the consulate vehicles had received permission to act the way they had. He said that in the future, if a diplomatic car did not stop and identify its passengers "immediately," it would not be allowed to pass the checkpoint.
Ben-Yishai described additional violations by consulate workers, and referred to at least one case in which a female Palestinian without appropriate documentation was found in a diplomatic car. Defense officials told the Post that there had been other similar cases in the past.
"We view this as an attempt to illegally transfer someone," Ben-Yishai said, according to the official police protocol.
Ben-Yishai also said the drivers of the cars, from east Jerusalem, hid their Israeli identity cards and put stickers over their names on their consulate-issued identity cards, since, as they claimed, "they are in a diplomatic vehicle and cannot be touched."
He added that police had filed a complaint with the Foreign Ministry and were conducting their own investigation to identify the driver who had tried running over the Israeli security guard.
While Power apologized for the incident and tried
smoothing things over, Laas angered Ben-Yishai, according to the protocol, when he said it was unacceptable for "simple guards" to inspect senior diplomats.
Laas said the communication needed to be between the guard and the driver, since "we can't know who the guard is."
This was understood by those present as
indicating his lack of trust in Israeli guards.
"This situation is being misused, and as proof in the latest incident, they refused to identify themselves and even tried smuggling a Palestinian without permission," Ben-Yishai said, according to the protocol. "The security guards at the crossings are licensed and are authorized by me, and that is how they should be treated. They are not 'simple guards‚' as Tim Laas called them."
Laas claimed that the Palestinian woman who had been in the car served as a translator for Dayton and the consul and that she had been returning with the team to Israel. He said it was possible that there had been a mishap with her papers.
'Simple guards', hmmm? Obviously not worthy to inhabit the same universe as exalted diplomatic personnel.
From the Israeli's point of view, this is a no-brainer. The Palestinians have used Red Cross ambulances as well as UNRWA and diplomatic vehicles in the past to transport terrorists, explosives and weapons inside Israel without any compunction, since a lot of the employees who work for these organizations - including the US Consulate - are Arabs more than willing to work for the cause of murdering Jews.
The Israelis have no way of knowing who's in the car, and the normal procedure an ally would follow would be to respect those security procedures by showing their identification and cooperating.
Instead, they're deliberately showing their contempt.
I'm not surprised at General Dayton's behavior in the least - he's in the Palestinian Authority training an army with your tax dollars for America's preferred terrorists precisely because of his long standing anti-Israel views. But US diplomatic personnel ought to at least go through the motions of treating the host country with respect. Can you imagine US embassy employees acting like this in Saudi Arabia? They'd loss their jobs in an instant.
Since it's Israel, I doubt they'll even be reprimanded.
The Israelis are probably going to have to enforce their security checks and push the envelope, even if it means refusing entry or disabling a consular car and detaining the occupants.
Simply amazing.
3 comments:
It is a long established fact that the US Consulate in Jerusalem is a hotbed of pro-PLO/Fatah adherents. In fact you find that most of the employees there are Paletinians. Israelis who live in Jerusalem would never think to go to the counsulate when they need visas or information. They all trek to Tel Aviv.
Are you firts figuringout that the State Dept's norm is anti-Israel anti-semitism? Look who the Anti-semitism csar decided to admonish about their anti-semitism-Israel. Not Suadi Arabia or anyother Arab country, the UN or Europe, but Israel. Enough said?
There is no way Israel should tolerate something like this. No other country would. Israel should have plenty of options. They could expel the entire diplomatic team of the United States and close its embassy. This may even score points for them with the Russians and the Chinese. An ally like Israel could prove quite useful to them in their fight with America. For Israel, I see huge potential upside in changing the "special relationship" with America and no signficant downsides.
However, Israel should proceed with caution. Russia, China, or both of them could prove equally treacherous as the Americans have and they are both far more powerful than America is. As such, they could inflict more damage on Israel than America ever could both economically and militarily.
I think Israel's best bet is to place its trust in the God who promised them the land of Israel. Relying on any foreign power I think will not end well for them.
If American diplomats behaved this well in any other country, the media and the world community would be beside themselves with rage against the "arrogant imperial Americans." You're correct this is simply amazing.
I suggest that we monitor this situation as it develops. I do not think it will not be a major incident in its own right, more of a thermometer. Let us remember that both the Jewish and Christian end times prophecies show Israel alone against the whole of the rest of the world. They show that it will take the power of an awful (as in "full of awe") Messiah to restore the normality that G-d intended. Not the little baby that some nominal Christians never progress beyond (if they get that far).
Put another way, if the Israelis do not defend themselves, no alliance will do it on their behalf. Not now. Not ever. Just look how the British have been trodden into the dirt while fawning over US presidents in the (fading) hope of having a "special relationship" with the US. With most US Jewry reportedly supporting a probable Muslim as president, it shouldn't be too hard to see the writing on the wall, should it?
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