Protesters in Bangladesh
burned American and Israeli flags and tried to march to the U.S. Embassy
to protest a YouTube clip widely perceived as anti-Islam.
Photo by AFP
For months before
the most recent attacks on U.S. embassies in North African states,
Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department officials had been arguing
over developments in these countries. Senior figures in Jerusalem
claimed that Washington was burying its head in the sand and ignoring
the increasing radicalization in states such as Tunisia and Egypt.
The Obama administration, which since the beginning of the Arab Spring
has aided, directly or indirectly, the forces that brought down the
dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Lybia, now finds itself
in a position of helplessness. The attack on the consulate in Benghazi,
in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed,
and the storming of the U.S. embassies in Tunis, Sanaa and Cairo,
proved the great hostility to the United States and the unwillingness of
these country's new leaders to challenge domestic public opinion.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials say their conversations with their
Washington counterparts have focused on what Jerusalem terms
"radicalizing trends" against not only Israel but also against the
United States and the West in general.
One of the most recent such meetings took place a week ago, during a
visit to Jerusalem by the acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near
East Affairs, A. Elizabeth Jones.
"The Americans were constantly trying to supply explanations and
excuses for events in the post-revolution Arab states, and simply
ignored the problems," one senior Israeli official said, adding, "In
practice the administration's ability to affect events in the Arab world
has decreased immensely."
The Foreign Ministry official presented the example of Tunisia, which
was expected to be moderate despite the rise to power of the Muslim
Brotherhood. Several weeks ago Israel's ambassador to Poland, Zvi
Rav-Ner, reported that the Tunisian ambassador to Poland had been called
back to Tunisia unexpectedly, ending her posting there. Rav-Ner added
that all five women serving as ambassadors of Tunisia in various
countries had been recalled at around the same time.
The Israel embassy in Washington was instructed to report the matter to
the State Department and determine whether it was aware of the
development. Several days late U.S. officials reported that the measure
was technical only, involving the replacement of all ambassadors from
the previous regime, and had nothing to do with gender discrimination.
The Foreign Ministry conducted its own examination and determined that
many male ambassadors from the previous regime had not been recalled.
"We knew what was happening, but the Americans preferred to find
excuses," said the senior official.
A similar pattern emerged as to Israeli efforts to prevent a clause
being added to the new Tunisian constitution outlawing normalization or
contacts with Israel. The Foreign Ministry asked the United States to
intervene, but was not satisfied by the response. "They told us, 'Don't
worry, it's going to be all right, the clause will be left out,' but the
clause is still in there," the official said.
Israel has also called American attention to the fact that for the past
year Egypt has been dragging its feet over talks on reopening the
Israeli embassy in Cairo. U.S. appeals have failed to speed things up.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials said the latest riots at the U.S.
embassy in Cairo, and the weak condemnation of President Mohammad Morsi,
demonstrated that despite its massive military and economic aid to
Egypt the United States had failed to achieve any real influence over
the Muslim Brotherhood. "Only now, after what happened to their
embassies, the Americans are beginning to understand the situation," the
senior official concluded, "to hear the president of the United States
declared that Egypt isn't an ally, but also isn't the enemy - that's a
real earthquake," he said.
In related news, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a new
public relations offensive in the United States. He has recorded
interviews that will be broadcast today on important Sunday-morning
political shows on CNN and NBC, all in an effort to persuade the
American public that setting "red lines" for Iran will cool Tehran's
enthusiasm for its nuclear program and reduce the likelihood of a wider
military confrontation. Netanyahu is expected to point to the violent
demonstrations at U.S. embassies around the world and to say, "Think
what would happen if these people had nuclear weapons."
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