William Delahunt/J Street Controvery Update

Remember that article on the Huffington Post in which Congressman William Delahunt claimed that Israel had "snubbed" him and J Street, which in turn set off an angry response? Well, it turns out that things didn't quite happen the way it said it did.

Solomonia caught a Jerusalem Post report from Danny Ayalon, the Israeli diplomat who supposedly did the "snubbing." Here's the Foreign Ministry's side of the story:

“[Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon did not prevent the delegation from meeting with senior Israeli officials,” as claimed by J Street last week, said Barukh Binah, Foreign Ministry deputy director-general and head of its North America Division.

“Ayalon was never part of the delegation’s schedule and talk of boycotting meetings with congressman has no basis in fact. On the contrary, the deputy foreign minister is always willing to meet with elected officials from any friendly country, especially the United States of America, and [with] Jewish organizations which represent a range of diverse views from across the political spectrum.”

Binah also rejected the “subsequent assertion that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apologized in hastily arranged meetings,” which he said was simply not true.

Looks like J Street was caught in a lie. Is Delahunt complicit? Maybe, but it's equally possible that J Street might have deceived him as well.

I wrote to the Huffington Post a letter encouraging them to publish this follow-up story. Click the link below to read it. Hopefully they will print it, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Dear Huffington Post,

On December 17th, you published an article about United States Congressman William Delahunt, claiming that he had been 'snubbed' by Israel's Foreign Ministry when he and the pro-peace organization J Street had requested a meeting. It since provoked a flurry of comments.

 

It now appears that diplomat Danny Ayalon, who allegedly was the one who committed the snubbing, has responded in an article on the Jerusalem Post. Here is the important part:

 

"“[Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon did not prevent the delegation from meeting with senior Israeli officials,” as claimed by J Street last week, said Barukh Binah, Foreign Ministry deputy director-general and head of its North America Division.

“Ayalon was never part of the delegation’s schedule and talk of boycotting meetings with congressman has no basis in fact. On the contrary, the deputy foreign minister is always willing to meet with elected officials from any friendly country, especially the United States of America, and [with] Jewish organizations which represent a range of diverse views from across the political spectrum.”

Binah also rejected the “subsequent assertion that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apologized in hastily arranged meetings,” which he said was simply not true."

 

You may not feel as if this is an important enough story, but I do feel as if it deserves some kind of coverage, considering the amount of traffic the original story received. I hope you consider publishing this story.

 

Sincerely,

Zach

Loyal Reader