Mere Rhetoric: US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel

Did you know that US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones had gone almost a year and a half without granting an interview to an Israeli press outlet? In an era where diplomatic sophisticates are obsessed with public diplomacy, that seems like kind of a glaring oversight - almost like the US doesn't really value Israel as an ally, and doesn't really care about convincing Israelis that it's willing to try to see things from there point of view. Presumably, this total disinterest in Israel must be because of the stranglehold that Jews have on American public discourse... like the ability to suppress Jimmy Carter's ~~anti-Semitic~~ anti-Zionist best-seller.

Regardless, until this week Ambassador Jones hadn't given an interview since he took over in September 2005. And the more disturbing thing is that it turns out that he may have had the right idea in keeping quiet:

"You [Israel] have given Gaza a little breathing space," he said. "You are still operating in the West Bank, you are still fighting terror there, because you didn't extend the cease-fire there. If you look vis-[a]-vis Gaza, Israel is no longer doing anything against the Palestinians in Gaza, but still bad things are happening to Palestinians, so that is good for you because it shows the Palestinians that terror is not in their interests because it will be directed against them."

How many ways is this stupid? Let's count a few of them:
(1) the "ceasefire" in Gaza is not actually a cessation of fire, given that Palestinian soldiers have been firing rockets at Israeli schools and hospitals
(2) even if you accept that rockets being fired at Israeli schools and hospitals is a "ceasefire", it would still be the case hat Palestinian soldiers have been firing rockets at Israeli schools and hospitals, which means that...
(3) the US Ambassador to Israel has just approved of the "breathing space" that Israel has given Palestinian soldiers to kill Israeli schoolchildren, because in the meantime "bad things are [also] happening to the Palestinians". State Department delicacy and nuance at its best.

The rest of the interview is the old nonsense about how Israel created Hamas's strength during the late 1990s, because every time Hamas attacked Israel, Israel retaliated by hitting Arafat. The real story, of course, is that Arafat was behind the attacks on Israel - either directly by sending his own suicide bombers or indirectly by giving Hamas terrorists breathing space in the territories.

Previously: Public Diplomacy Probably Won't Work, and Counting On It Is Probably a Bad Idea, Public Diplomacy Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry, There Are Many Arabs That Support Hezbollah? No Way!