Last year, two U.S. senators introduced the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act. The legislation calls for Israel’s entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, enabling Israeli citizens to visit the U.S. without a visa, even as Israel routinely denies entry to U.S. citizens, particularly those of Palestinian origin. (Jewish Voice for Peace)
Are they shameless? Who are we talking about, the Israelis or the US Senators? Or both?
Epicurus wasn’t one for empires or bossing others around, but calculated snubs such as this towards the United States, without whom the Israeli government would not exist, is short-sighted and immoderate.
It seems that Israel has decided that it has the US on a string and doesn’t need to make diplomatic gestures to it. It certainly doesn’t want visitors whose ideas differ from their own, but nonetheless expects to come and go to America and other democracies at will. The old consensus about Israelis, based on the holocaust and their terrible history, unravels day by day. It is the gang of Israeli extremists who are responsible for the unravelling. One feels so sorry for sensible groups like Jewish Voice for Peace.
The high number of young Israelis who overstay their visits to the U.S. has been a sticking point in Israel’s drive to get off the U.S. visa-required list. Another is its failure to regularly report lost and stolen passports to Interpol. A bigger issue has been its rough treatment of Arab Americans and pro-Palestinian activists travelling to Israel. But Israeli efforts to pursue U.S. military, scientific and industrial secrets has also emerged as a major hurdle, if not the major hurdle, in normalizing visa relations, according to congressional sources. (Newsweek)