Israel's ambassadors and former senior diplomats are furious about the attack on European diplomats near Taybeh. Not about whether it happened, but from a PR standpoint,
https://x.com/academic_la/status/2111505288725692565
Israel's ambassadors and former senior diplomats are furious about the attack on European diplomats near Taybeh. Not about whether it happened, but from a PR standpoint, Netanyahu's office has even doubted that it happened despite footage. A story in Ynet included several anonymous quotes by Israeli diplomats showing concern about the repercussions of this PR strategy:
1) Senior Israeli ambassadors around the world said the images circulating in the international media amount to "a genuine strategic and public-diplomacy terror attack." They also said the images make it harder for them to present Israel's positions abroad.
2) The ambassadors warned that the attack hurts the settlement enterprise it claims to serve. European states already sanction settlement products, and more EU members are planning similar steps. One said "Whoever thinks he is protecting the settlements this way is in practice endangering their future and the livelihoods of their residents."
3) They said one violent incident can undo years of relationship-building. "The damage doesn't end with a negative headline. It affects public discourse and the atmosphere in which policy and economic decisions concerning Israel are made." They also warned that pressure on settlement goods could scare off companies and business partners and widen boycott calls.
4) A former senior official blamed the government directly. "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. These are the rotten fruits of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government. We will all pay a price for this." He said the government "lets these people run wild because it doesn't want to fight with them before the elections and lose their votes." He called the government's silence "irresponsibility and governmental abandonment." He added: "In a normal world all these rioters would be arrested, and the central ones would be placed in administrative detention and removed from the area."
The powerless class of old-school hasbara diplomats knows they cannot spin their way out of this. The whole world sees not only that the settlers are Jewish supremacist terrorists, but also that their government works hand-in-hand with them. Israel now takes pride in its crimes, and diplomats are useless figureheads in this situation.
posted by Satish Sharma at
07:09
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