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Geese, ganders, Rosenthal

By Ron Kampeas · December 28, 2009

Jeffrey Goldberg can't recall a U.S. official slamming a foreign nation's ambassador, referring to statements about Israeli ambassador Michael Oren made by Hannah Rosenthal, the State Department's anti-Semitism envoy.

I can't off hand (although something's scratching at the back of my memory about a British ambassador at one point or another). But never mind: I know of another, scrappy, little land where government officials don't hold fire when it comes to envoys from the United States and elsewhere who displease them...

I'm thinking about Israel and the envoys who visited Orient House in the late 1980s and the tongue-lashings they got. Jeffrey, as I recall, was there at the time.

Then, there's also the late Rehavaam Zeevi's threat of violence against Martin Indyk, in 1997. ("Gandhi" was not in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, true, but supported it.) More substantially, Netanyahu tried hard to get Indyk returned to D.C.

And I know Daniel Kurtzer has a tale or two to tell about how some Israeli officials made clear their longing for his removal.