Israel: No disrespect intended
President Obama devoted an unusually long portion of his U.N. General Assembly speech -- 10 thick paragraphs -- to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But as eyes in the chamber turned to the Israeli delegation's chair, many noticed that it was empty.
Before the blogosphere could begin to erupt in speculation about a new low in U.S.-Israeli relations, an Israeli official contacted reporters to say that Israel's absence from the U.N. chamber was due to observance of a religious holiday, Sukkot, and not a boycott or a sign of disrespect. The official said representatives of the United States and United Nations had been alerted in advance.
Whew. Everyone calm down.
By
Glenn Kessler
| September 23, 2010; 11:55 AM ET
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Let the Zionazis fight their wars against their neighbors, without any US assistance.
Posted by: lichtme | September 23, 2010 12:38 PM | Report abuse
Apparently, the Israeli official who contacted "reporters" was NOT observing his religious holiday! Why didn't he attend and listen to the speech by the American President? As usual, US media is ready to help in covering-up the Israeli "shortcoming"!
Posted by: editor4tonio | September 23, 2010 12:45 PM | Report abuse
Looks like our president was stiff armed. The holiday explanation is not convincing.
Posted by: qualquan | September 23, 2010 12:53 PM | Report abuse
How about we cut off that $3 billion in annual aid to israel. No disrespect intended.
Posted by: googleguy | September 23, 2010 1:52 PM | Report abuse
So...If the government has to take a day off because of a religious holiday, isn't that called a theocracy?
Posted by: honeycum | September 23, 2010 1:56 PM | Report abuse
"So...If the government has to take a day off because of a religious holiday, isn't that called a theocracy? "
I guess that makes the U.S. a theocracy since we take Christmas and Easter off as well.
Posted by: Tom12345 | September 23, 2010 4:48 PM | Report abuse
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