News from the Israeli Consulate

By Ishmael Khaldi, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of Israel for the Pacific Northwest

For those who haven’t heard, the first week in March has been
designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill
intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees
are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone
responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.

Last year, at UC Berkeley, I had the opportunity to “dialogue” with
some of the organizers of these events. My perspective is unique, both
as the vice consul for Israel in San Francisco, and as a Bedouin and
the highest-ranking Muslim representing the Israel in the United
States. I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11
children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went
on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master’s
degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the
Israel Foreign Ministry.

I am a proud Israeli – along with many other non-Jewish Israelis
such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one
of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true
democracy in the Middle East.

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By Steve Huntley

Twice in recent weeks high-level terrorists have been killed — with
different results. One slaying was hailed as good news in the struggle
against fanaticism while the other has sparked umbrage in Europe and
calls for investigations. Welcome to the convoluted, perverse politics
complicating the war against Islamist terror.

The first case was Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani
Taliban killed in South Waziristan by a U.S. drone attack in January.
The second was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas arms smuggler, kidnapper and
murderer suffocated in a Dubai hotel room last month by persons unknown
but widely speculated to be Israeli Mossad agents.

Mehsud was responsible for a suicide attack in Afghanistan that
killed five CIA agents and contractors and for killing many Pakistanis.
Al-Mabhouh was guilty of the abduction-murders of two Israeli soldiers
on leave and of smuggling rockets and other weapons from Iran into the
Gaza Strip to kill Israeli civilians.

Not a shadow of doubt exists about their guilt. Bringing them the
justice they deserved should be a cause for triumph, as was the case
with Mehsud. Sadly, not so with al-Mabhouh’s demise in some places. The
reasons are apparent — al-Mabhouh’s death came in a hotel room, not a
war zone, and the party deemed responsible is Israel, target of a
virulent campaign from much of the Arab and Muslim world and radical
left-wing elements in the West to delegitimize the Jewish state.

By Daniel Seaman, Director of Israel Government Press Office

Last week,
the Foreign Press Association in Israel circulated an e-mail to its
members containing a Reuters article entitled “Foreign reporting
depicted as stupid and condescending.” The article related to the
Ministry for Public Diplomacy’s campaign calling on Israelis to counter
anti-Israel prejudice, and complained that the foreign press was
personally offended by the videos on the Web site www.masbirim.gov.il.

Surely not, I hear you say. Those foreign journalists – who daily dish
out an unhealthy helping of material critical of Israel, denouncing its
democratically elected government’s policies, and some accusing its
defense forces of war crimes – should certainly be able to take a bit
of criticism directed at them.

In all honesty, the videos were
in no way meant to offend the press, who I am quite certain are able to
recognize satire when they see it. Yet, when they paint a picture so
different from the reality in the eyes of Israelis, and with such
little regard for their point of view, what do they expect?

Being
depicted as “stupid and condescending” as the Reuters article suggests,
is not the nicest of punches, but it certainly beats being portrayed as
baby eaters, Nazis and ethnic cleansers, as some in the international
media has often inferred. Similarly, what of the “gullible European
audiences” the article insists are inherent to the sketch? Is the press
really decrying the suggestion that they influence those back home to
whom they speak?

By Stephen Rosenthal, Executive Secretary of the Jewish Welfare Fund of Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Not
often do we have the chance to truly make a difference. This year, the
South Dakota Legislature has an opportunity to support our soldiers in
the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. A bill sponsored by District 16 Rep.
Dan Lederman of Dakota Dunes requires the South Dakota Investment
Council to divest itself of funds invested in foreign energy companies
doing business with Iran.

The primary reason for the bill
is that Iran is a state sponsor of terror. The U.S. State Department
agrees. Iran supplies terrorists with both supplies and money, which in
turn are used against young American men and women in uniform fighting
for our freedom.

One of the main weapons Iran supplies to
terrorists is improvised explosive devices. An IED’s armor-piercing
capabilities are incredible. Several of South Dakota’s sons have been
killed in Iraq by these devices.These casualties can be attributed directly to Iran’s support of terrorists in Iraq.