Nordlinger in Jerusalem

I have been enjoying parts I and II of Jay Nordlinger’s Israel journals in part because I haven’t been in that country since 1992 when I spent a few weeks in a kibbutz by the Dead Sea. I went over to Jericho then, a lovely Arab town only minutes away. I have a suspicion such side trips are no longer on most people’s itineraries, but I was interested to read that the American Colony Hotel, a Graham Greeneish locale where I stayed on my first trip in the early eighties, is still a popular hangout for the lito-journo set. Nordlinger met Palestinian porteparolista Saed Erekat there, he of the three thousand dollar suits. (What, Jay, no Erekat sartorial update?)

But what most caught my attention in Nordlinger’s account was this short graph about a meeting with an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman:

Topic A is this story about some mole in the Pentagon, and AIPAC, and Israeli spying. The spokesman could not be more categorical: Israel absolutely, absolutely does not spy in the United States, mindful of the colossal stupidity of the Jonathan Pollard business. Nothing could be more harmful to U.S.-Israel relations. Nothing could be more harmful, for that matter, to AIPAC.

Hmm… makes sense, doesn’t it… particularly since nothing has happened since the intial brouhaha several weeks ago… no arrests, no charges. Someone in the FBI sure had a hate out for someone. I wonder who and why. Perhaps they are suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome.