The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Article 27, 1a.: "the receiving State shall, even in case of armed conflict, respect and protect the consular premises, together with the property of the consular post and the consular archives."
Article 31, 1: "Consular premises shall be inviolable to the extent provided in this article." [And no, mobs of thugs don't come up as an exception.]
Article 33: "The consular archives and documents shall be inviolable at all times and wherever they may be."
Article 40: "The receiving State shall treat consular officers with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom or dignity."
Said one diplomat: "It has led to a complete loss of credibility in the [Egyptian] government internationally from all directions." This is indeed a crucial moment for the "new" Egypt to prove it can act like a governable country. It is already scrambling to appear in control of the Sinai, and the same may yet become true for Cairo.
If they fail, the security vacuum will be filled by Islamic parties. "Israelis Flee Cairo Embassy as Protesters Invade Offices," by David Kirkpatrick and Ethan Bronner for the New York Times, September 10:
CAIRO — Israel sent a pair of military jets into Cairo at dawn on Saturday to evacuate its embassy staff after six members had been trapped in the embassy overnight by thousands of protesters who invaded the building and tossed documents from the windows. [...]
The violence also raised concerns about whether Egypt’s military-led transitional government would be able to maintain law and order and meet its international obligations, and to what extent popular rage unleashed by the Arab Spring would send a chill over the region.
Not only the police on the scene, but the entire Egyptian security apparatus was apparently dragging its feet:
Throughout the night, desperate Israeli officials had placed several calls to their American counterparts seeking help to pressure the Egyptians to take more action to protect the embassy. Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Obama, Israeli and American officials said.
In Washington, the White House said in a statement that Mr. Obama had “expressed his great concern” about the embassy situation in his conversation with Mr. Netanyahu. The statement said Mr. Obama called on the government of Egypt “to honor its international obligations to safeguard the security of the Israeli Embassy.”
Israeli officials said the six trapped embassy staff members were rescued by Egyptian commandos early Saturday morning, after hours when Egyptian military and security forces had appeared to stand idle on the sidelines for fear of confronting the mob.
Fear, or sympathy? Not that fear is an excuse by any stretch of the imagination. If the military and security forces are afraid of a mob, Egypt has an even bigger problem.
“This went on for 13 hours and there was real concern for the safety and lives of our people,” an Israeli official said. “The mob penetrated the embassy and at the end there was only one wall separating it from six of our people.”
Israel flew out its ambassador and about 85 other diplomats and family members, leaving behind only one diplomat, the deputy ambassador, who took refuge in the American Embassy, diplomats familiar with the arrangements said. [...]
For Egypt’s interim military rulers, allowing the invasion of a foreign embassy is an extraordinary breach of Egypt’s international commitments that is raising security concerns at other embassies as well.
The U.S. has denied reports by Al-Ahram of an attack on its embassy in Cairo.
“It has led to a complete loss of credibility in the government internationally from all directions,” a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation. And it poses a new dilemma for the military council, which has sought to avoid confrontations with protesters and, often, to accede to the popular will to guard its own tenuous legitimacy....
Here, "steam control" became a loss of control.
diplomacy, huh?
yep!
that will really bring great results.... (sarc/off)
Barbarians do not follow or respect any human laws!!
Is the Vienna Convention in the Koran? If not then its abrogated.
Much has been made in the past about whether the US, speaking through April Glasbie, had given Saddam Hussein the green light to invade Kuwait. One could characterize this as a vacuum, from the perspective of Saddam Hussein.
When Obama greets Islamic Luminaries on September 11 at Ground Zero, while making a point of excluding Christian leaders and the victims, the Muslim Mobs the world over will perceive this as a green light to . . . riot . . . culminating in a genocidal frenzy against non-Muslims, beginning with the Jews. What does a call for community service mean to a Muslim Mob, from their perspective? Will Obama be viewed as offering a Friday Prayer, though given on a Sunday?
The narrative is one of claiming victimhood, just like the decades of sermons offered by Jeremiah Wright and the life long rantings of William Ayers. The Mob will say you made me do it, as they slaughter the real victims of tyranny.
When Obama greets Islamic Luminaries on September 11 at Ground Zero, while making a point of excluding Christian leaders and the victims, the Muslim Mobs the world over will perceive this as a green light to...
There is no way to apply traffic control to Moslem activists. Moslems, Dar al-Islam and Islam itself must be explicitly and publicly rejected and countermeasured.
Ain't no other way. Otherwise it's a slow-suicide Kabuki dance to the bitter end.
*** 33:21 ***
Big holiday this weekend for Moslems, though, as the nation moves from Labor Day to Islam Day. Ramadan is over, green lights in all directions, and a very big anniversary to celebrate, just like they celebrated in the streets of North Jersey, Queens and Brooklyn at the joyous sight of the towers falling with thousands of burned and crushed Infidels with them.
The true face of the so-called Arab Spring.
has there ever been a doubt that *this* is the best that can be expected from the musloid scum?
(on a second thought, 'scum' is redundant. )
Phoenix, diplomacy between infidels and mahoundians can produce great results, provided that the infidels speak a language that can get their message across.
Israel has to take the Sinai Peninsula. It has no other strategic option.
For how much longer are these people going to be called "protesters"? Or "pro-democracy demonstrators" as they were called last night on the television news, as if "democracy" had anything to do with an attack on the Israeli Embassy!
Actually, I fear that the Egyptian mob actions show that all governments are representative of their peoples, whether they intend to be or not; and that people's theologies matter.
John Adams famously said that the US Constitution was made for a moral and religious people, and would work for none other. The religiosity he understood was that bounded by the Anglican Church on the Right and his own Unitarians (still biblically oriented in his day, rather than the free-form faith we know today) on the Left, with the Reformed (Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Dutch and German Reformed) right in the middle; and a few sprinklings of Roman Catholics and Jews. Indeed, he spoke after two centuries of agitation for rule of law and checks on the balances of kings, which, in his Anglophone context, meant the politics of the more thoroughly Reformed persuasion. This stemmed from a deep humility about what human nature was after the Fall of Adam, and a corollary that, rather than have Leviathan grab all power and right to prevent the war of all against all (viz. Hobbes), no set of human hands should ever have too much political power.
In the Muslim lands, it seems that there is a choice only between strongmen and uncontrolled mobs. The strongmen, when they take power, must pander to the supremacism, hatred, and violence of the Muslim street lest they open the way for new strongmen to come and topple them. This is why Sadat was assassinated and why Mubarak prudently allowed the government-controlled media to spew venom.
Islam lacks a doctrine of original sin and holds its followers to be "the best of men". Hence, it can never conceive of Muslims truly wronging the Kufr, and when things go wrong, it causes people to ask "Who did this to us?" rather than "Where did we go wrong?" Add to this, its ethics represent a standard far below that of either Judaism or Christianity; as if fearing the charge of hypocrisy, it sanctified the lust, greed for plunder, and violence of at least the males among its members. Hence, it will sooner or later injure itself and blame another.
It is clear from this incident that the peace between Israel and Egypt, while sincere at the official level when Sadat made it, was sincerely greeted by the populace of only the Israeli side.
I also suspect that after the mob driving out the Israeli embassy, the Obama administration's use of good offices to secure the rescue and evacuation of the last Israeli diplomats will further enrage the Egyptian Muslim street. it may very well decide that it has the power to seize the US Embassy in Cairo, and precipitate a new major crisis between the USA and the Muslim world.
The apologetic tone Obama took towards the Muslim world at Cairo may thus prove repetitive of the Carter administration's stance towards the Pahlavi regime in Iran, and with the same unhappy results.
"Phoenix, diplomacy between infidels and mahoundians can produce great results, ***provided that the infidels speak a language that can get their message across.*** "
(phoenix emphasis)
P.R.E.C.I.S.E.L.Y. !!!
and the only language understood by the musloids is........
force!
they are an accursed bunch of cowards hiding behind civilians but putting on a huge bravado....
i say shoot first ask questions later! (as a metaphor)
Engaging in wars to win "the hearts and minds" of these sub-neanderthals has been an epic waste of lives and money; a blood-soaked fool's errand.
Their lust is to live and die by the sword, and we should bring them to that end whenever possible.
l totally agree with you on letting these islamist go by the sword. there is no rule of law and equality as with Christian/Jewish laws have, with islam its all about taking over the infidel world by killing us!
If one comes to slay you, slay him first !
Israel needed to destroy some documents at it’s embassy.
Israel arranged for people ( their religion is not relevant) to attack the embassy.
Under cover of that attack the documents were destroyed.
Now that you have read it on the internet it must be true!
Have a nice day :)
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What the assault on the Israeli embassy most tellingly reveals is how much stored-up hate resides in Islam. Heaps and heaps of it. Submit or get hate.
These are the stark alternatives Islam offers. I have come to the point where I am totally repulsed by Islam, utterly so, even if it is the true religion, which I would bet my life on that it isn't. But if it is, then shame on God and, oh man, do we live in a creepy universe. If Islam is the true religion, the universe would have been better off never coming into being. Yes, Islam is that awful.
Thanks for your brilliant, and insightful analysis.
It all makes sense now.
If it weren't for you, I would have continued believed that a hostile mob attacked and invaded the Israeli embassy.
But I forgot that those Jooos are masters of deception, and would rather hire a rent a mob, instead of using the office shredder to destroy secret documents ( that ended up being scattered to the public, anyway ).
I just can't understand how Marisol missed this...
The Islamic countries accept the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights only to the extent that it does not conflict with Sharia. Do they accept the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in the same way?
In any case, the U.S. and the E.U. countries should all be cancelling their foreign aid to Egypt at once. In the case of the U.S. that would save us over a billion dollars per year.
Exactly.
If the Israeli embassy is at risk, then the U.S. ebmassy is at risk.
If the U.S. embassy is at risk, then it should be closed.
If the U.S. embassy is closed, then U.S. aid to Egypt cannot be administered and must be terminated.
A logical syllogism. QED.
There is zero chance that Islam is the true religion. It brings misery and hate, and destroys innocence. Islam codifies violence and injustice.
It is not God but Satan who wishes this darkness upon the earth. I know you are not a believer...there was a time when I was not...but from a purely logical standpoint, Islam as a belief system is a deeply flawed psychotic cult.
And Tom Davis, I wondered today how long our deeply flawed and pychotic president would allow our embassy to remain open in Egypt.
I'm a former State Dept. Arabist who was a Political/Military Officer in Saudi Arabia's embassy for three years. I was also Political Officer for internal political affairs for a year in Saudi and the Ambassador sent me and another non-Arabist to all 13 provinces in the countries [we actually only made it to twelve] to see how the average Saudi felt.
You wouldn't know it, but well-educated Saudis who specialized in a real discipline, like agriculture and other practical applications such as engineering, were full of admiration for the Israelis' efforts to adapt their life to living in an arid, non-fertile environment.
This was before the so-called "Arab Spring," & the unfree media were constantly ranting about Israel, which my Pentagon contacts told me had the Hydrogen Bomb, so at least the Israelis will be able to reduce the region to smithereens, which is where the undereducated masses who are now attacking Israeli embassies should probably be blown to...!
The UNDP has made three exhaustive studies, starting in the '80s, on why the Arab world remained economically and politically underdeveloped despite ample "rents" from selling their oil & gas and having tremendous amounts of money.
Duh... The UN will never understand that the problem is big governments, not lack of money, and the Saudis simply are like most other Arabs in being oppressed by their unelected "leaders." That's why I'm so eager to see Qaddafi leave and Bashar Al-Assad also be forced off the stage...
[P.S. I also lived and served as an FSO in Egypt and Lebanon and have visited every member state of the Arab League except Djibouti.]
Dave, I read your post with a great deal of interest. I was in the Foreign Service for a while, and have a lot of respect for its accumulated knowledge. However, I was not an Arabist, but worked in Thailand, China, and the Bureau of Central African Affairs.
As a matter of curiosity, did you ever do any observation of how the remaining Jews of Yemen were treated?
My Coptic brethren routinely fall victims the the blood thirsty Islamic mobs which can be incited to gather in the thousands at any pretense. However, they never have Egyptian commandos show up to save them from the mob.
Obama is just a Mussie ass kisser as Bushie.
Israel cannot do any such thing just yet. First, this has no international or even American support which would further isolate Israel. Any Isreali millitary action would guarantee that the most radical Islamic groups would take over. This is likely the case regardless, but Israel is taking the safe course and hoping that a somewhat less radical Egyptian government that recognizes the folly of an all out with war with Israel would prevail.
While the Egyptian military can be quickly devastated,the millions of Jihadests in Egypt and abroad would wreak havoc on Isreali interests with Egyptian state funding and sponsorship.
Egyptian Jihadis are more educated and more intelligent than their Hamas or Hizbuallh counter-parts. They would be far more dangerous.
Gee, an islamist govt. losing credibility. Who would have ever thought we'd see the day?