Pipes: Tlaib offered the conditions, *not* Israel

Submitted by Frumious Falafel (United States), Sep 8, 2019 at 10:58

Pipes, you say: "Tlaib's angry rejection of the conditions placed on her visit made Israel look petty." -- but unless you know something the rest of us don't (which may well be) -- I believe you have it wrong. Tlaib's letter to Israel appealing for a visit on humanitarian grounds contained her own offer of conditions to which she'd adhere. Israel accepted, full stop. Tlaib angrily rejected.

Then what happened is that (as usual) the Mainstream Media purposely obfuscated the chain of events to favor an opponent of Israel. Every summary of her final letter of rejection was taken at face value -- wherein she speaks as if Israel had placed a set of onerous conditions on her visit to her grandmother. But again, in point of fact, one can see her letter to Israel appealing for a family visit on humanitarian grounds. And in that letter *she* offers up a sentence about refraining from BDS activities -- which would have been proper given the supposed nature of her appeal and visit.

Now I suppose you can say that she was only saying this because of earlier criticism of her by Israel as to the types of things they suspected she would do once there. But even had she not included that offer, it's almost a given that Israel would have still allowed her visit on humanitarian grounds.

In retrospect it it was Tlaib who seemingly set Israel up in that last round of dialogue.

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