NADAV TAMIR was acting well within the rules of his position as Israel’s consul general in Boston when he offered his government some frank advice about how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are alienating some Americans. Monitoring local opinion is part of what consuls do, and Tamir shouldn’t be punished for doing his job.
But Tamir has been summoned to Jerusalem and his future hangs in the balance. Does the Netanyahu government have evidence that Tamir leaked the confidential memo outlining his views? Unless it does, it should back off and allow a consul who is liked and respected in Boston’s Jewish community to continue in his position.
Israel’s close alliance with the United States has been its most important diplomatic relationship, and under the Bush administration Israel enjoyed almost uncritical support. But lately, Netanyahu has clashed publicly with Washington over President Obama’s call for a stop to construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In his memo, Tamir argues that the disagreement is hurting public opinion of Israel in the United States. He urges Israeli diplomats to “declare publicly that we share the Obama administration’s world view’’ and to work out differences outside the public eye.
How it the memo became public remains unclear. Did Tamir mean for it to get out? Did the leaker mean to discredit the consul’s point of view? Whatever the reason, the memo emerged at an awkward time for the Israeli government. By some accounts, Netanyahu and his aides are viewing their policy differences with Washington in intensely - even inflammatorily - personal terms. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Netanyahu referred to two top Obama advisers as “self-hating Jews.’’ A Netanyahu spokesman later denied the assertion.
The controversy surrounding Tamir is peculiar in part because discussions in Israel are often quite freewheeling. Calling him on the carpet won’t make Netanyahu’s problem with Obama go away.
