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Perhaps Misunderstood Israeli Cultural Norms Make Our U.S. Partners Overly Suspicious
(Jerusalem Post) Reuven Ben-Shalom - Recent articles in Newsweek, alleging Israeli spying on the U.S., make me sick to my stomach. Throughout the spectrum of collaboration, from intelligence sharing to R&D, Israelis engage their U.S. counterparts with friendship, comradeship, professionalism and enthusiasm. It reminds me of the time I led an Israeli team in a real-life U.S.-Israeli coordination operation. With American lives at risk, my team bent over backwards in mobilizing Israeli assets until the crisis was over. Our U.S. counterparts were overwhelmed and appreciative, but a State Department official, stationed in another country, wrote: "My sources tell me that the Israelis did not do much to assist." Perhaps misunderstood Israeli cultural norms have contributed to making our partners overly suspicious. Israeli organizational culture gives great freedom of creativity to junior officers. The preferred psyche is Maj.-Gen. Arik Sharon's disregarding rules and doing what's right, not a "follow orders and procedures" attitude. I have seen many occasions when plain Israeli naivete was interpreted as aggressive information collecting. If an Israeli wanders into an off-limits zone, it is because he is curious and fails to read the sign. He was not trained by the Mossad to obtain secret information and has no malicious intentions. An Israeli asking too many questions at a Pentagon briefing is not led by malice aforethought, but by overenthusiasm and his typical Israeli informality. I myself have made naive mistakes such as leaving a conference room in a U.S. missile defense installation without an escort, or asking a witty question on a subject not listed on the agenda. I have been involved in the U.S.-Israeli relationship for more than a decade and have never seen any evidence of Israeli spying on the U.S. I take pride in my American heritage, while I continue to serve, as a reservist, as the IDF liaison officer to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv during wartime. The writer is a former pilot in the Israel Air Force.