JERUSALEM, 15 April 2008 — Israel’s secret service declined to assist American agents guarding former US President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders shunned him over his plans to meet Hamas, US sources said yesterday.
“They are not getting support from local security,” one of the sources said on condition of anonymity. An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service provided no protection to Carter during his visit to the Jewish state because no request was made.
Asked about the Israeli account, Carter’s delegation, which had previously declined to comment, told Reuters in a statement: “The Carter delegation inquired with both the lead agent of the Secret Service detail (protecting Carter) and the State Department Regional Security Officer and were told unequivocally that an official request for assistance had been made.”
American sources close to the matter said Shin Bet, which helps protect visiting dignitaries and is overseen by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office, declined to meet the head of Carter’s Secret Service detail or provide his team with assistance as is customary during such visits.
Carter, who brokered Israel’s first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel’s President Shimon Peres on Sunday. But Israel’s political leadership, including Olmert, steered clear of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The former US leader has angered the Israeli government with plans to meet Hamas’ top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as “a system of apartheid” in a 2006 book.
An American source described as “unprecedented” the lack of Shin Bet cooperation with the US Secret Service, which protects all current and former US presidents, as well as Israeli leaders when they visit the United States.
