Wednesday, October 7, 2009
So says that story in the North Shore Jewish Journal: Consul General Reaches Out to Constituents After Memo Flap
The uproar over Israeli Consul General Nadav Tamir's leaked three-page memo in which he criticizes the Netanyahu government blew over more than a month ago, but the Consul General of New England is taking pains to make amends with his local constituents.
"It is unfortunate that a cable gets leaked," Tamir told the Journal in a recent interview. "It was supposed to be between us (diplomats) and our superiors. We have a lot of debates in order to improve our policies."...
...While the liberal Boston Jewish leadership defended and supported Tamir, conservatives blasted him. Boston's Russian Jewish community in a scathing letter printed in the Russian Jewish Telegraph requested that Tamir -- who was summoned back to Israel to answer to his superiors -- be recalled from Boston.
Tamir, who returned from Israel with his job intact, declared that he was never worried about being transferred out of Boston even though the controversy occupied the front pages of newspapers, TV stations and websites from Boston to Israel.
In his interview with the Jewish Journal, Tamir asserted that he respects both the conservative and liberal camps.
"I know they all care deeply about Israel. I want to reach out to Jews wherever they are in New England," including the Russian Jewish community, he said. "I still see myself as their Consul General and I serve them with love."...
For previous posts here on the flap, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
I was also contacted by this reporter and spoke to her after she had posted the above.
For full disclosure, I had lunch with the Consul and a couple of his staff people about a week ago. He was perfectly diplomatic and pleasant and claimed he didn't want to discuss the matter of the leaked memo, though he did when I pushed it. He also claimed not to care if I wanted to criticize him in the future -- "We're a democracy. I can take criticism." So clearly he's trying to mend bridges since he's still got a job to do here. The left/right battle is a bitter one, made more bitter by the politicization of Americans' support for Israel by certain parties which some of us are not going to forget. Tamir stepped into the middle of it (intentionally or not), and there are still those not ready to forget that, either. I do salute his efforts, but I will continue to criticize his office's actions where appropriate.
