This week, Jerusalem surfaced on Britain’s screen, and on Honduras’s. On Britain’s, when Liz Truss announced that she would consider moving her country’s embassy into the city. And on Honduras’s, when word came that Xiomara Castro was considering moving her country’s embassy out of it.
UK would-be prime minister,Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Photo: Wikipedia Commons.
If you have not heard of Ms. Liz Truss before, you soon might, or might not. Right now, she is the outgoing foreign minister and the foremost hopeful in the race to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom come September 5.
Oh. Hmm. If you have not heard of the United Kingdom before, it used to be called Great Britain; also, the British Empire. Ever since it betrayed its promise to help the Jews re-establish their ancestral national homeland, and then used its Royal Navy to blockade that land – preventing Jews fleeing the Holocaust from getting there – it has ceased to be an empire and it is certainly great no more.
Be that as it may, it continues to project itself as a major player in international affairs and I suppose that, in a sense, it is. At least, it does have the eighth-largest economy, by purchasing power parity (thanks Wiki), in the world. And it’s a close friend of the United States.
In any case, according to an animated report in The Jerusalem Post this week, Truss Friday sent a letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel in which she wrote: “I understand the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British Embassy in Israel [and] I will review a move to ensure we are operating on the strongest footing within Israel.”
The Spectator got all excited too: “Liz Truss has signalled a historic shift in British foreign policy by saying she would review the location of the UK’s embassy in Israel in order to strengthen ties with the Jewish state.”
Excited I’m not, despite the fact that Truss is taking a different track on this from both Johnson and Teresa May before him – they both adamantly rejected considering such a thing. As anyone who understands diplomatic doublespeak can see, no real commitment of any sort is being made here by Truss.
Which might all be moot anyway. she hasn’t won the race just yet.
So, onto Ms. Xiomara Castro, president of Honduras since January this year.
Last June, Honduras became the fourth country to place its embassy in Jerusalem, following the US, Guatemala and Kosovo. Then-prime minister of Israel, Naphtali Bennett, told then-president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, that he would “be recorded in the pages of history as having done a brave and justified deed for the State of Israel.”
“You are a true friend,” gushed Bennett.
Which became an “oops!” a few months later when Hernandez was extradited to the US on charges of drug trafficking.
President of Honduras Xiomara Castro. Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Castro is contemplating a shift in reverse. According to her foreign minister “The issue of moving the embassy to Tel Aviv … is a topic of interest to her, as well as maintaining a balanced relationship with the other Arab countries and Israel.”
Ah yes, the Arabs. It appears this lady wants to be recorded in the pages of history as having done a brave and justified deed for the State of Palestine. Except that her anticipated deed is cowardly. It is unjustified. And there is no State of Palestine.
Google the embassy address list of any country that has diplomatic relations with Israel, and you will find that in every single instance (excepting for The Netherlands, for benign reasons), all of their embassies are situated in the city designated as capital by the host nation, except when it comes to Israel.
I know what that says to Israel. What does it say to you?
