A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Diplomacy: It's Hard to Keep Track of What's PC

As Barbie supposedly might have said, Diplomacy is Hard: Let's Go Shopping. Apparently Fidel Castro recently said some nice things about Israel in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. Binyamin Netanyahu, who's not getting a lot of good press at the moment, apparently praised this, and President Shimon Peres sent a thank-you note of sorts.

Oops. The incoming Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, now that the Republicans have taken the House, is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), a longtime staunch supporter of Israel but, trumping that, a Havana-born Cuban-American who represents Miami's Little Havana, so she sent Bibi word that, as much as she loves Israel, she hates Castro more. Netanyahu has now clarified his position: he only agrees with Castro when he praises Israel, not for any of that other stuff.

Glad we cleared that up.

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