RUBE SELF IDENTIFIES: Indyk is frequently depicted as one of the US’s top Mideast diplomats. If true, that’s a real problem. Abbas has a decades-long history of Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish incitement, but it suddenly occurs to Indyk that his professed friendship with a Jewish American diplomat may not have been entirely sincere?

PS By the way, Israelis have a deserved reputation for being forthright, even blunt, sometimes even rude. Most Israelis, even diplomats (especially political appointees), are basically incapable of the kind of smooth phony “sincerity” that elites like Indyk eat up. This is, for example, a big reason why supposed “human rights advocate” Jimmy Carter got along famously with ex-Nazi military dictator Anwar Sadat, but couldn’t stand the blunt, but democratically elected, Menachem Begin.

And UPDATE: For those not following, Indyk’s tweet today was a response to a flagrant display of antisemitism by Abbas, ranging from justifying the Holocaust to the false claim beloved of antisemites that Jews are descendants of Khazars. The linked article about Abbas’s long history of Holocaust denial is from 2022, demonstrating, among others things, that this was widely known before Abbas’s recent outburst and Indyk is either feigning surprise or is truly an ingenue.