U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro is currently under increased security protection at his home and at the U.S. Embassy which is located in Tel Aviv. The security has been increased because Shapiro apparently received death threats related to the Nuclear Iran deal.
Several threatening letters arrived at the Embassy over the past week, numerous Israeli media outlets reported. In addition, someone posted on the Ambassador’s Facebook page that he is a “kapo.” That term was used to refer to Jews who did the work of the Nazis during the Holocaust. The anonymous Facebook post also claimed the Ambassador had “abandoned Israel.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a press release in response to the incident, in which the Center’s leadership denounced the threats.
“Words have consequences and we denounce death threats made against a great American and a proud and knowledgable Jew,” said rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean of the leading Jewish Human Rights organization.
“The Wiesenthal Center is opposed to the controversial Iran Nuclear deal and hope that the US Congress will reject it.
“We are also deeply troubled by the the campaigns that have labeled opponents in the United States Congress, ‘warmongers’ akin to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and who put Israel’s concerns before those of America.
“We have urged our political leaders to denounce such language. We also denounce those who would vilify and question the motives of those who back the deal,” they added. “Death threats and demonizing the ambassador of Israel’s closest ally is an outrage that must not go unchallenged,” Hier and Cooper concluded.