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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US Consulate’s political counselor named as official who told Israelis: Western Wall is not yours
2017-05-17
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson needs to rein in these people hard. Their job is to present President Trump's views, not impose their adoption of the Palestinian position on him and the U.S.
[IsraelTimes] TV report says David Berns principally responsible for incident that embarrassed Trump administration; 2nd US diplomat, economic counselor Jonathan Shrier, also reportedly involved in spat.

The American official who sniped at his Israeli counterparts that the Western Wall, the holiest place for Jews to pray, is not part of Israel and not Israel’s responsibility was named Tuesday in a TV report as David Berns, the political counselor at the US Consulate in Jerusalem. A second US official, the consulate’s economic counselor Jonathan Shrier, was also involved in the bitter diplomatic incident, which deteriorated into an angry shouting match, Channel 2 said.

The TV report predicted that Berns’ job might now be under threat, since the incident embarrassed the Trump administration ahead of US President Donald Trump
Posted by:trailing wife

#10  Nikki Haley basically completely reversed this at the UN.

“I don’t know what the policy of the administration is, but I believe the Western Wall is part of Israel and I think that that is how we’ve always seen it and that’s how we should pursue it. We’ve always thought the Western Wall was part of Israel,” Haley said.


https://www.jta.org/2017/05/17/news-opinion/politics/un-ambassador-nikki-haley-says-western-wall-belongs-to-israel
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891   2017-05-17 19:48  

#9  Another example of "Deep Government"! and how it really feels. Arabists will always rule in State Dept!
Posted by: borgboy   2017-05-17 14:15  

#8  Obama would give him a medal!
Posted by: borgboy   2017-05-17 14:13  

#7  What would Putin do?

Posted by: borgboy   2017-05-17 14:12  

#6  el arish perhaps
Posted by: Sninenter the Grim5848   2017-05-17 10:08  

#5  Perhaps Mr. Berns needs reassignment to Somalia or Gaza
Posted by: Frank G   2017-05-17 08:50  

#4  Shalom.
Posted by: gorb   2017-05-17 03:05  

#3  So, what else is new - State didn't want Truman to recognize Israel.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-05-17 01:42  

#2  Thank you for the correction, Bankok Billy.
Posted by: trailing wife   2017-05-17 00:59  

#1  Consulates are staffed by the bureaucrat heading up the state department's personnel department. - Not true actually not even close.

It sounds like the embassy staff needs to be cleaned out, too. - I'll bet you the "staff" was WH staff not Embassy. Site advances like this are done by WH staff. Embassy folks are not the ones saying what POTUS will or won't do - only WH staff does that.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy   2017-05-17 00:22  

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