Congressman Flake speaks in support of Israel and chides the decision of UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, to admit the Palestinian Authority with full membership.
Rep. Flake Derides UNESCO Decision to Admit Palestinian Authority
November 3, 2011 by 2 Comments
Thank you Congressman Flake for taking the courageous stand that you have in defense of Senate President Russell Pearce. …. oh what, what is that you say? … oh, you’re too coward to take a stand on the LD18 recall election?
And you want a job promotion? You’ve got to earn it first & you’ve done a poor job of that.
How about let’s talk about the issue Rep Flake addresses?
It’s a valid issue to discuss, but by the last sentence of comment #1, we’re already being dragged into a dead-end rut because either 1) it’s about some global security large nuance one don’t know squat about and worse is too lazy to research it, or 2) a corrosive need for a constant deflective personalization attack of the messenger.
The Palestinian UNESCO tactic is going to be a diplomatic thorn in everyone’s sides whether Rep Flake mentions it or not. It is irrelevent what anyone’s particular distain for Rep. Flake is. The issue stands on its own merits. Flake has done more than some lazies here by bringing it to our attention. He’d be better served by a more intellectually curious citizenry that then took some quality time looking it up and getting up to speed.
Some germane background. A lot of people don’t know this unless they’ve had some exposure to diplomatic functions…especially in less popular diplomatic postings, like Third World nations where no one wants to work and thus the pressure for a turn over is less than in say, Paris, where more connected people can get plum diplomatic posts and lots of swish partying. In the more mundane or outright difficult posts, it’s quite easy for ambassadors to sit around years. Our usual rotation for our ambassadors is 2 or three years, in quite a number of countries,other national ambassadors depending on the country, can be there 10 to 15 years or more.
So what? Well, the Diplomatic Corps has all sorts of silly little protocols which interestingly are also found in the WHite House Press Corps. At any given posting, the ambassadors afford each other a hierachy of diplomatic deference based on the longest serving ambassador, who is the “dean” of the corps at that post. ” Palestine” is not a country, it’s a state of mind, but it has “embassies” and they deftly work the longevity angle.
In quite a number of countries, the “Palestinian Ambassador” is the longest serving member of the Diplomatic Corps, out-ranking in seniority in the Diplomatic Corps any Israeli Ambassador, any US Ambassador or any other actual nation’s ambassador. The entire local corps of diplomats is found deferring to the ambassador of a country that isn’t even recognized. Been like that for decades.
The phenomenon was mostly recently displayed in the WHite House Press with Arab Helen Thomas the “doyen” of the WHite House Press Corps, as the longest serving member. WHile she hasn’t had a visible by-line since forever, by WHPC protocol, she “owned” that front seat and was shriveling like a prune in it, not about to give it up. Think of that effect being played out in country after country at the diplomatic level.
The sit and squat tactic has scored a seat in UNESCO, a foot in the back door.