Israel Matzav

Israel shuts embassy in Jordan

I went to a wedding tonight, and someone came up to me and told me he'd read on the blog that I'd be there.

I got on a bus this morning and someone came up to me and told me that he'd spent Shabbat in my house because his mother read my old humor and Matzav lists and now he reads my blog.

I met someone else this morning who told me that he and his family spent Shabbos in my house when they made aliya. Unfortunately, they're back living here now, but he reads my blog.

This doesn't happen in Israel, where most of the people who would come up to me and say that are fellow bloggers. Occasionally, yes. But not as often as here.

Oh and at the wedding tonight, the groom's sister, who interned at the JPost a couple of summers ago (where she told me she was instructed to read my blog and one other - I won't tell you all which one so as not to insult the rest of my friends) asked me how the blog was going....

But the jet lag caught up during the wedding and I have to drive someplace else tomorrow (later today) so just one post for the next couple of hours.

After last weekend's debacle in Cairo, the Israeli government has decided to shut down its embassy in Amman for the weekend, where a 'million man march' against Israel is planned.

Israel evacuated its embassy in Jordan Wednesday evening, hours before a Facebook organized march under the banner (in Arabic) of "No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory."

Unlike in Egypt, where diplomats lived with their families, in Amman the Israeli delegation serves without their families, and comes home for weekends.

The decision came just days after the 13-hour rampage at the Israeli embassy in Cairo, during which six security guards locked themselves behind a steel door while mobs ransacked the embassy.

Here's some video.

Let's go to the videotape.



About five years ago, I was at a Shabbat table with an Israeli diplomat who had just been transferred to Africa (where she had to fly to Europe at least once a month to buy Kosher food) from Jordan. She said Jordan was considered a plum assignment because you went home every weekend. Between last year's attack on the Israelis going home and Wednesday's story, it may not be such a plum assignment anymore.

Labels: Amman, Israeli embassy, Jordan is Palestine, US embassy in Amman

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:08 AM