Dubious Diplomacy

An American diplomat visits a foreign country. He has a meeting with groups opposed to the policies of their own democratically elected government, A, which has close ties to our own government, B. The opposition group castigates A, as well as specific groups of Americans who support A and the President of the United States. The meeting includes Ministers of a third entity, C, non-democratic, also opposed to the policies of A and given to virulent criticism of American government officials including the President, but seeking American largesse.

An American diplomat visits a foreign country. He has a meeting with groups opposed to the policies of their own democratically elected government, A, which has close ties to our own government, B. The opposition group castigates A, as well as specific groups of Americans who support A and the President of the United States. The meeting includes Ministers of a third entity, C, non-democratic, also opposed to the policies of A and given to virulent criticism of American government officials including the President, but seeking American largesse. The American diplomat reportedly joins in the denigration of the American groups in front of both foreign groups. The meeting is not conducted in the American Embassy in A, but rather in a Consulate in A that caters largely to C. All of this is detailed in minutes of the meeting provided by the opposition group.

The American response? The meeting was supposed to be “off the record.”

No one was supposed to know that Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met with a coterie of Israeli doves and Palestinian Ministers and officials under the banner of Peace Now at the U.S. Consulate in West Jerusalem. And surely no one was supposed to know his response to left-wing Knesset Member Colette Avital who, according to the minutes of the meeting reported in The Jerusalem Post, “expressed reservations about the U.S. Conservatives, Christians and AIPAC,” and alleged that these constituencies, “are lobbying to torpedo the road map and suggested that the Americans should help us [the Peace Coalition] to express our views to the American public.”

No one was supposed to know that, according to the minutes (according to The Post), Burns stated his view that “the common sense of all peoples will override the Conservative and Christian viewpoints once they see the road map’s potential.” He told the anti-government group to continue with their political activities “as new peace attempts reflects the peoples will and will result in fundamental changes.”

We think everyone should know, particularly the White House, that an American official is actively undermining Prime Minister Sharon, the landslide winner of the last election, by encouraging the landslide losers. We think everyone should know that Mr. Burns thinks the views of American conservatives and Christians will be overridden by people with “common sense,” implying that two of the strongest groups of supporters of both Israel and President Bush have none. We think everyone should know that Ms. Avital is sticking her nose into American politics and asking an American official to stick his nose into Israeli politics – but wait, everyone knows that she’s been doing that for years.

We are not Christian, or conservative or AIPAC. We are, however, supporters of the democratically elected government of Israel. We are supportive of President Bush’s call for Palestinian reform and recognition of Israel. We are skeptics of the Ministers and officials of the PA, who were not in this meeting to enhance the prospects of legitimacy or security for the State of Israel. And as such, we are offended by Mr. Burns’s behavior. Not least by his apparent belief that his behavior matters less if it remains “off the record.”