Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Israeli UN ambassador Dan Gillerman has brewed a mini-tempest in a teacup by taking the highly undiplomatic step of smearing the good name of a former U.S. president. I say “mini-tempest” not because Gillerman’s breach isn’t serious–it is very serious. Rather, I say this because Condi Rice doesn’t really care much that Gillerman had a hissy fit against Carter. I’ll bet privately she even approves at least somewhat of Gillerman’s attack. But for the purpose of protocol and diplomatic precedent she’s got to pretend to take umbrage at Gillerman’s backalley brawling tactics.

In addition to saying that Carter had “blood on his hands” for meeting Khaled Meshal, Gillerman also called Carter (keep in mind this is the only U.S. president to actually negotiate a peace treaty between Israel and one of its Arab enemies) an “enemy of Israel.”

The United States registered an official protest with Israel against its ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, for calling former U.S. President Jimmy Carter an “enemy of Israel” prior to Carter’s recent visit to the region.

A senior Foreign Ministry source said Saturday that the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv asked that Gillerman be made aware of the U.S. administration’s dissatisfaction with the disrespectful comments about the former U.S. President.

In addition, the State Department is planning to issue a public statement condemning comments made by Gillerman at a press conference in New York on Thursday, where he called Carter a “bigot.”

In my last post on this incident, I expressed the hope that Gillerman had gone “off the reservation” rather than that he was expressing the official position of the Israeli government regarding Carter. It appears the former explanation may be what happened. If that is the case, then the attack is no less disturbing as it means that Gillerman was making policy on his own in direct contravention of directives from his superiors–that is, Livni herself:

The same [foreign ministry] source said that Gillerman’s attack on Carter “surprised and embarrassed” Jerusalem, which contravened direct instructions from Livni to avoid comments on the former president.

Gillerman is scheduled to leave his post in several months. I wonder whether Livni will call him home early or leave him in place. I also wonder whether Gillerman, knowing full well that his incendiary remarks couldn’t hurt him this late in his UN tenure, is angling, like many of his predecessors, for a political career in the Likud. If that is the case, the Carter smear may be a transparent tactic to curry favor with the Bibi crowd.

Either way, an Israeli diplomat has just mugged a former U.S. president. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Gillerman is a two-bit political thug. Carter is a Nobel laureate.

DR, one of my trusty readers has pointed me to this interesting confession by Aussie Dave that he’s a bit peeved at bloggers who are distorting his purposes in creating the JIB Awards. Jesus’ General of course comes in for his share of opprobrium because he has the effrontery to suggest that his readers vote for the few progressive blogs among the nominees:

there are bloggers who have seen it necessary to either disparage other competing blogs, or send their readers to skew the results by voting for selected blogs that conform to their ideology.

Which is of course laughable because the JIB Awards as a whole are largely a competition that conforms to Aussie Dave’s ideology. The only blogs that don’t are the ones that Jesus’ General is promoting.

I come in for my share too though Dave won’t name me (I guess I’m the blog “that dare not speak its name”):

…There have also been those who have tried to taint the entire awards with their baseless accusation and petty jealousies, but I have already devoted wasted enough time on them.

Dave and I have gone round and round on my charge that the JIB Awards are really promoting his own particular political, propaganda agenda. He’s given me further ammunition for this with the following statement:

The JIB awards were conceived…to bring attention to…Jewish, Israeli, and pro-Israel blogs,…which I consider absolutely necessary in light of the mainstream media bias against Israel (and, to some extent, Jews).

So there you have it, Aussie Dave admits in print that one of his main goals is to promote “pro-Israel blogs” and to combat the media’s alleged bias against Israel and Jews. It’s all the fault of those no-goodniks at anti-Israel publications like the New York Times and CNN, don’t you know. As for Di anti-Semitin, there’s one under every rug. They’re just waiting to jump out and bite us.

This too is an interesting admission from Dave about the “meaning” of winning a JIB award:

The results themselves are irrelevant. They may not necessarily be indicative of the quality or worth of the blog. They may very well only be indicative of the blogger’s readership, or their ability to garner support.

Saying the results are “irrelevant” would be like Bert Parks saying it didn’t matter who won the Miss America contest or like Simon Cowell saying it was “irrelevant” who won American Idol. Kind of a strange statement in my opinion. But it kinda makes me wonder whether the JIB Awards themselves are “irrelevant.”

Dave’s finally cottoned on to the fact that Little Green Footballs is of course going to win whatever category it’s in because it has a reservoir of 100,000 daily readers to call upon to support its nomination. Which of course means that mediocrity with a mass readership wins at the JIB Awards every time.

I know I’m gonna rile poor Dave even further by violating his directive but I urge my readers to vote for the few blogs (by following the link) I know and respect in the JIB Awards:

Jewschool and here and here
Orthodox Anarchist and here and here