19 June 2012
Lawrence Davidson argues that the corrupting influence of the Zionist lobbies in the USA has mean that American officials abroad routinely betray US citizens where Israel is involved.
The State Department is that branch of government that has responsibility for foreign policy. Every US embassy and consulate is an extension of the State Department. US citizens travelling abroad, be it on a short vacation to Canada or Mexico or an extended venture for business or study to anywhere on the globe where the US has diplomatic relations, can rely on assistance in an emergency from the State Department. Well, almost anywhere.
Israeli exceptionalism
|
How about Israel? In theory there is no difference between the behaviour of State Department personnel in Israel and anywhere else. If you go to the State Department’s website and look under Israel, “Entry and Exit Difficulties, it will tell you how to contact the embassy or consulates, in case of need, depending on where in the country you are. Thus, if you are stuck at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport you should contact the consular section of the US Embassy (972) (3) 519-7575. If you are stuck at the Allenby Bridge border crossing you have to ring up the consulate in Jerusalem (972) (2) 630-4000. But, again, that’s theory.
In practice, however, the behaviour of the State Department’s diplomatic personnel in Israel is quite different to that of diplomats in other countries. In fact, like everything else touching on Israel, US diplomatic practice has been corrupted by the power and influence of the Zionist lobby in Washington.
The case of Sandra Tamari
Take the recent case of Sandra Tamari. Ms Tamari is a Quaker, the mother of two children, an American citizen of Palestinian dissent, and also a member of the St Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee. She travelled to Israel at the end of May 2012 to “participate in an interfaith delegation involving Palestinians and Israelis working for peace and coexistence”. She was stopped at Ben Gurion airport and “aggressively questioned for over eight hours before being taken to a detention centre and deported back to the United States. During the questioning, Israeli security personnel demanded that she show them her personal email account and accused her of being a terrorist.”
Given her situation, Ms Tamari attempted to contact the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. It took a couple of hours for her to actually get someone to speak to. This someone was Chris Kane, a general service officer. According to Ms Tamari’s account, here is how part of the conversation
