State Department Officially Adopts Arab Perspective as Policy
Everything old is new again:
Hours after US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer left Israel and his job, incoming US Ambassador Richard Jones touched down in Israel Sunday afternoon and headed straight to the Foreign Ministry and immediately presented a copy of his credentials.
And what kind of man did the State Department send to maintain a delicate balance between Israel and the Arab world, giving a fair hearing to both?
"An Arabist by training, he knows none of the major politicians on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and has never been assigned to the issue, even in Washington." The story pointed out that the new ambassador's "roots in the Arab world are so deep that his beloved greyhound is named Kisa for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the country of his first posting in the Arab world."
Why would the State Department send someone intimately familiar and largely sympathetic with the Arab world to be the United States's voice to Israel:
"Maybe they wanted someone who could provide the Arab perspective, too. The stakes are not just the Israeli handover and disengagement from Gaza. The aftermath will take months, if not years, to play out."
The US ambassador to Israel has now gone on record saying that he believes that part of his job includes "provid[ing] the Arab perspective." Is the Arab perspective now the official policy of the United States? And if not, why is the new US ambassador to Israel implying that it is.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Hours after US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer left Israel and his job, incoming US Ambassador Richard Jones touched down in Israel Sunday afternoon and headed straight to the Foreign Ministry and immediately presented a copy of his credentials.
And what kind of man did the State Department send to maintain a delicate balance between Israel and the Arab world, giving a fair hearing to both?
"An Arabist by training, he knows none of the major politicians on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and has never been assigned to the issue, even in Washington." The story pointed out that the new ambassador's "roots in the Arab world are so deep that his beloved greyhound is named Kisa for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the country of his first posting in the Arab world."
Why would the State Department send someone intimately familiar and largely sympathetic with the Arab world to be the United States's voice to Israel:
"Maybe they wanted someone who could provide the Arab perspective, too. The stakes are not just the Israeli handover and disengagement from Gaza. The aftermath will take months, if not years, to play out."
The US ambassador to Israel has now gone on record saying that he believes that part of his job includes "provid[ing] the Arab perspective." Is the Arab perspective now the official policy of the United States? And if not, why is the new US ambassador to Israel implying that it is.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
