At Annapolis, Israeli Delegates Did Not Use Separate Entrance

In an earlier post, I repeated the claim that at the Annapolis summit, in response to Saudi Arabian demands, Israeli representatives acquiesced in entering through the servant's entrance.

I see that Caroline Glick writes this week:

Even when independent media outlets use their best efforts to report the facts in a credible way, they sometimes get it wrong. For instance, on November 27, the Jerusalem Post reported a quote made by an Arab diplomat to AFP news agency in Riyadh claiming that the Bush Administration had bowed to the Arab demand to force the Israeli delegation at the Annapolis conference to enter the conference hall through a separate entrance from the Arabs. In the diplomat's words, "The Saudis told Washington that they do not want to meet anyone from the Israeli delegation, either by chance or by prior arrangement. Hence it was decided that ... delegations would enter into the meeting room from different doors."

His assertion was made credible by statements from US officials regarding the Saudi demand for segregation between the Arabs and the Israelis at the conference. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "As the Saudi foreign minister put it, nobody's interested in these uncomfortable situations where there are theatrics for the sake of photographs. We'll of course be respectful and mindful of that as we'll put together the various events."

It was these twin reports that informed my own decision to begin my Nov. 30 column "Apartheid not peace" [view here] with the story of the separation of Israeli representatives from Arab representatives at Annapolis. Happily, after my column was published, both the State Department and Israeli officials denied that the US had enforced the Arab demand for segregated entrances. [emphasis added]

Note that there was a request by the Saudis for segregation on some level. [Hat tip: Velcro]

There is plenty to criticize about what happened at Annapolis.
Now, there is one less thing.

[Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs]

Technorati Tag: Israel and Annapolis.