From: Berhan Sium (eretrawi@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Aug 28 2009 - 16:26:28 EDT
Selamat Dehai,
I can't understand why the Eritrean envoy to the Zionist state, Amb. Tesfamariam Tekeste, seems to be complaining as to why the Israel has left it's embassy in Eritrea vacant for over two years. This, to me, is great news that we should celebrate, not mourn! Let us hope the Israelis haven't left a Mossad agent in Asmara all this time, and that in due course they will close their embassy in Eritrea of their own accord. In the meantime, the least we could do is give them the "kidu aytbelom, kemzKedu gberom" treatment, by way of extending Eritrean hospitality :-)
What does Eritrea have to benefit from diplomatic relations with the Zionist state, anyway? Nothing, in my humble opinion. Morally, it's repugnant; politically it doesn't make sense, and has never made any sense since the beginning; economically/commercially Israel's trade with Eritrea is zero, although a long time ago Eritrea used to import drip-irrigation technology from the Zionist state, which it can now do at a cheaper rate from either China or India, or even Iran. All in all, Eritrea has nothing to gain from relationship with the Zionist state . . . only the ire of many Arab states in the region, and of course bad PR among the millions if not billions of Arab/Muslim pubic around the worl.
At a time when the apartheid Zionist state has turned violently genocidal against the long-suffering Palestinian people and has become the main source of hatred among billions of Arabs and Muslims around the world, not to mention being the source of Eritrea's troubled relationship with the US, as well as aiding and abetting the greatest terrorist state in the Horn -- the Woyane regime in Ethiopia -- the least Eritrea could do is downgrade its diplomatic representation in Israel to the barest minimum, and close it within one year. Israeli embassies in our region are nothing but intelligence outposts anyway. Thus, Ambassador Tesfamariam Tekeste should be polishing his diplomatic CV for his next posting rather than complain about the absence of Israeli ambassador in Asmara :-)
Some humble suggestions for the State of Eritrea to consider in widening its diplomatic relationships around the globe:
* Immediately open an embassy in either Havana or Caracas that would be responsible for overall diplomatic representation in South America.
* Secondly, close it's embassy in Israel, and reopen its embassy in Kuwait (which has done much more for Eritrea both in pre--independence liberation struggle and post-independence development efforts) while having the Eritrean Ambassador to Egypt represent it as a non--resident ambassador to the Zionist state -- if a representation is a must for real-politick raison d'être. The Zionist state is a doomed country, anyways. Read the article I forwarded yesterday by renowned American Jewish historian, Gabriel Kolko.
Just a humble suggestion from an average Eritrean citizen who wishes well for his country.
Berhan
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[DEHAI] Ambassadorship, Anyone?/The medialine
From: michael seium (michael.seium@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Aug 27 2009 -- 17:43:26 EDT
*Ambassadorship, Anyone?*
*Written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Published Thursday, August 27, 2009*E--Mail
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They spend their lives living in places like Rome, Paris, Buenos Aires and Beijing. They spend their days shaking hands and smiling, and their evenings drinking wine with influential folk from all walks of life. They eat regularly at the best restaurants a country has to offer... The life of an ambassador -- regular parties, good pay, superb benefits -- is seductive to many.
But Israeli diplomats seem to have found one exception to the rule: Eritrea.
Apparently the Jewish State has been struggling to find a diplomat willing to serve as the country's ambassador to the East African nation for over a year.
"It's not clear to me what's going on," Tesfamariam Tekeste, Eritrea's ambassador to Israel, told The Media Line. "For the last one or two years Israel has been without an ambassador. The Israelis are telling me they can't find someone but I can't understand why."
Tekeste said that while the absence of an ambassador was not good for the two countries' "cordial relationship", it was up to Israel how to proceed.
"We want to maintain our relationship and an ambassador will help, but this is up to the Israeli government," the ambassador said. "If they want to appoint someone they are welcome. If they want to close the embassy they are welcome.
The ambassador said he had been offended by the depiction of Eritrea in an Israeli newspaper's report on the vacancy.
"No food, no water, no electricity -- it's rubbish what I read in the newspaper," Tekeste said. "it's ridiculous these kinds of reports. The reality is far from that."
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said it was a challenge finding people willing to serve in countries like Eritrea
"This is just a circumstantial thing," Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told The Media Line. "It's always difficult to find people for hardship countries and Eritrea is a hardship country, believe me. When you wake up every morning and you don't know if you'll have electricity or water, that's a hardship country."
"It's not just about finding qualified candidates," Palmor stressed. "This is not the army and you can't force an ambassadorship on anyone. Their families need to agree and there are so many aspects that need to be taken care of: provisions for your children's education, employment for the spouse, etc."
Shlomo Aronson, professor of politics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, suggested the absence may be due to a lack of qualified personnel, not a lack of diplomats interested in serving in Eritrea.
"The main job of an Israeli ambassador is talking to the people, not the government," he told The Media Line. "You cannot count on too many people who speak Swahili, or a local language in a country with 250 tribes and just as many languages."
Aronson said the majority of appointments were based on professional qualifications.
"The Foreign Minister, in this case Avigdor Lieberman, has the right to appoint a few people to some positions, especially the ambassador to the U.S., U.N., Germany, France and Great Britain," he said. "But the rest of the ambassadorships are all staffed by career diplomats so the decisions are to a large extent professional and depend on linguistic skills, experience and availability."
Insiders say the time between an ambassador's position being vacated to the time the position is filled can be quite long.
When an ambassador position opens up, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's procedure is to open an internal tender for all qualified ministry employees.
If there is no suitable or available candidate for the position, as is the case with Eritrea, the position can be opened to all Israeli civil servants from various ministries.
Applications are then reviewed by an appointment committee, which makes a list of recommendations to the government.
Upon government approval the candidate is sent to the host government, which also needs to confirm the appointment.
Only then can the new ambassador start preparing for going abroad.
On arrival in the host country the ambassador has to present a letter of credentials from the Israeli president, after which they can start working as ambassador.
Requests for comment from the Israeli embassy in Asmara, Eritrea, were refused.
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