We’re covering a story about how the five-person J Street-sponsored congressional delegation to Israel has run up against something of a wall in its attempts to meet with Israeli officials.
We’ve learned that at the last minute, the military denied the delegation entry to Gaza. The tour had been brokered by U.N. personnel. We’re trying to track down the why.
The delegation, also sponsored by Churches for Middle East Peace and led by U.S. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), has met with the Palestinian and Jordanian leaderships, but apparently Danny Ayalon, the deputy foreign minister, has put the kibosh on meetings with even mid-level Israeli officials.
Yesterday, as I reported, Ayalon told a gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that J-Street "should not call themselves pro-Israeli." Ma’ariv quotes foreign ministrty officials as going farther, calling the group "anti-Israel."
This hasn’t stopped Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor — very much his own man as far back as I can remember — from meeting with the group.
What does this mean about the Washington embassy’s very deliberate efforts to convey the news of a reconciliation with J Street, saying that the group has been moving towards the mainstream? And how will this end for Ayalon,a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, who is now a member of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party? He just got over apologizing to the Turkish ambassador for deliberately squeezing him into a kid-size chair for a rebuke about anti-Semitic programming on Turkish TV.
Ayalon had agreed to meet the delegation, but without representatives from J Street and CMEP. Here’s the Foreign Ministry’s explanation, per Ynet:
The Foreign Ministry always welcomes American Congress members visiting Israel and is happy to organize meetings for them with any state official as per their request.
The Foreign Ministry would be happy to organize such meetings for the American Congress members visiting Israel at the moment, and there is no need for any mediators. The Foreign Ministry regrets the attempt to impose who will be present in the meetings, which is unacceptable in diplomatic life.
The notion that there’s "no need for any mediators" might come as a surprise to the staffers from AIPAC, ADL, AJC, etc. who maintain offices in Israel just to broker such meetings.
Here’s Delahunt at a press conference today:
We were puzzled that the deputy foreign minister has apparently attempted to block our meetings with senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry – questioning either our own support of Israel or that we would even consider traveling to the region with groups that the deputy foreign minister has so inaccurately described as “anti-Israel.”
In our opinion this is an inappropriate way to treat elected representatives of Israel’s closest ally who are visiting the country — and who through the years have been staunch supporters of the US-Israeli special relationship.
We would respectfully ask the government for a clarification of its stance toward this and future delegations.
There are undoubtedly a range of opinions in this country as there are in the United States on how best to secure our common goal of peace and security for Israel and all the peoples of the region.
It is unwise for anyone to take disagreements as to how to accomplish our common goals and purpose — which is to achieve peace and security — and to misrepresent those differences as questioning support and concern for the state of Israel itself.
Here’s more coverage by Haaretz. Below the jump, Delhaunt’s full statement and translated coverage from Ma’ariv.
[[READMORE]]
Delahunt statement:
My colleagues and I are very pleased to be in Israel as part of our visit to the region which has included Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Every member of Congress with me is a long-time friend of Israel. We are deeply committed to Israel’s country’s security and to the special relationship between our two democracies. Some of us have deep personal and family ties to Israel as well.
I want to be clear that every member of this delegation has consistently supported aid and assistance to Israel – amounting to tens of billions of dollars during our collective decades of service – all of which has been aimed at guaranteeing Israel’s security.
We are particularly delighted to be visiting Israel and the region with the pro-peace and pro-Israel group J Street and with Churches for Middle East Peace. We and many of our colleagues from both political parties have been very supportive of the emergence of this new pro-Israel voice with its deep support in the American Jewish community.
We have met with a wide variety of political and civil society leaders, including King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Rifai in Amman; Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, other Members of Knesset on both the right and the left. Additionally, we met with the head of the Yesha Settlers Council as well as peace and human rights groups in Israel; and Prime Minister Fayyad and civil society leaders in the Palestinian Authority.
We are looking forward to meeting tomorrow with Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni and to further official briefings.
We come here supportive of the Obama administration’s peace efforts and have met the senior America officials on the ground. We are confident that an extraordinary effort is being made by the Obama administration and are hopeful that we will soon see this effort result in a substantial movement toward a two state resolution of the conflict.
We have come to the region to deepen our understanding of the issues facing the Middle East and the world – notably the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so as to better address the challenges posed by Iran. These are not simply Israeli interests. We are here because these important issues impact on fundamental American security interests as well.
We’ve just arrived in Tel Aviv from Sderot where we had a very emotional meeting with the Mayor and residents from whom we better understood the trauma and pain they have endured. The Mayor described his childhood when it was possible for him to accompany his grandmother to shop in the open market in Gaza and for residents of Gaza to work in his community of Sderot.
In addition, we received a very informative briefing from the United Nations on the current situation in Gaza.
We have been struck by the breadth of opinions and depth of passion that we have encountered in Israel and throughout the region when it comes to the best way forward to addressing the multiple challenges facing Israel and the Middle East.
We’ve been extremely gratified by the reception we’ve received across the region and across the political spectrum.
It was therefore with real surprise and disappointment that we read a headline in this morning’s paper saying, “Foreign Ministry Boycotts Members of Congress.”
We were puzzled that the deputy foreign minister has apparently attempted to block our meetings with senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry — questioning either our own support of Israel or that we would even consider traveling to the region with groups that the Deputy Foreign Minister has so inaccurately described as “anti-Israel.”
In our opinion this is an inappropriate way to treat elected representatives of Israel’s closest ally who are visiting the country – and who through the years have been staunch supporters of the US-Israeli special relationship.
We would respectfully ask the government for a clarification of its stance toward this and future delegations.
There are undoubtedly a range of opinions in this country as there are in the United States on how best to secure our common goal of peace and security for Israel and all the peoples of the region.
It is unwise for anyone to take disagreements as to how to accomplish our common goals and purpose – which is to achieve peace and security – and to misrepresent those differences as questioning support and concern for the state of Israel itself.
Maariv story:
By Eli Bardenstein, Maariv, February 17
The conflict between the Foreign Ministry and the leftist Jewish American organization J Street has escalated, after Jerusalem recommended boycotting a delegation of US congressmen invited to Israel by the organization.
"The Foreign Ministry is repeating the story of humiliating the Turkish ambassador," members of the organization told Maariv. The Foreign Ministry claimed in the past that J Street is anti-Israeli and harms Israel. The organization claims that the Foreign Ministry recommended President Shimon Peres not meet the members of the delegation, and Peres announced he wouldn’t. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon was instructed not to meet members of J Street but only the legislators, and ultimately the meeting was canceled for that reason. Ayalon’s office said that the meeting depended on the recommendation of the professional echelons of the Foreign Ministry. "We do not need anti-Israeli middlemen," they said.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials were firmer. "It is an extreme left-wing organization that supported the Goldstone report and other anti-Israeli decisions," they said yesterday. "The organization divides the Jewish public in the US and therefore there is no reason to cooperate with it." According to political sources, the Ministry recommended the prime minister and president not meet the group, and allowed a meeting only with Dan Meridor, which took place yesterday afternoon.
"The Foreign Ministry’s behavior has been very problematic, compared to the treatment the delegation has received from the Palestinian side," sources in J Street said yesterday. "They briefed certain Israeli parties not to meet us, and meetings that were scheduled were canceled at the last moment. We are talking about very senior congressmen who are not used to being treated this way." The organization noted that they are considering holding a press conference today and criticizing the Foreign Ministry’s behavior. A source close to the delegation said they are disappointed by the deputy foreign minister’s refusal to meet them.
The four Democratic congressmen who came to Israel are William Delahunt, Bob Filner, Lois Capps , and Mary Jo Kilroy. They came on a five-day visit to the Middle East and earlier this week met King Abdallah II of Jordan and his prime minister. Their goal is to meet a series of official and non-government parties, to deepen their understanding of the issues facing the United States in the region.
The Foreign Ministry said in response: "Israel welcomes any delegation of American legislators who visit us."
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
