Ap headline keating grandfather8/13/2023 Over the last year, he’s parlayed those qualities into an ambassadorial style - part diplomatic, part learning process - that involves engagement across Israeli society. “I’ve met many of the rabbinic leaders, and while I don’t understand everything, I see the importance of family, tradition, and studying.” “I’ve gone to Bnei Brak many times now to learn about the chareidi community,” he says. That’s because Tom Nides is convivial, he exudes a certain empathy, and seems genuinely curious about people - notably the exotica of the chareidi world. Nides is still chuckling over the episode a day later when we sit down for a pre-Rosh Hashanah interview, but as becomes clear, the anecdote is more than mere opening gambit. “I told my staff, ‘Clear my schedule - we’re going to Bnei Brak to pack boxes.’ ” Tom Nides picks up an enlarged photo of his own meeting with the gadol, which rests in the corner of his office at the United States embassy in Jerusalem. “It would have meant a lot to my grandfather,” he said. Taken aback by the 11th-hour timing, Nides responded: “You do know that my schedule is arranged weeks in advance, don’t you?”īut Yanky, as he’s widely known, was having none of it. “Tom, we’re giving out 4,000 food parcels in Bnei Brak today - can you come and pack some boxes?” Rav Chaim’s well-connected grandson had a last-minute request for the American diplomat. On the screen flashed a name that until recently would have merited an immediate response from Israel’s prime minister himself. Gedalia Guttentag with reporting by Yisrael YoskovitchĪmbassador Tom Nides was busy with meetings one Sunday morning a few weeks ago when his personal phone rang. But he was two miles away, and it turns out that being two miles away from the frontlines between Iraqi forces and Isil is a very dangerous place to be,” said the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, using an acronym for Islamic State.Tom Nides has brought a human touch and open mind to the ambassador’s office in Jerusalem Underscoring the complicated nature of the US role in Iraq, the White House told reporters that even though the serviceman died in a combat situation, he was not on a combat mission. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Navy Seal was killed “by direct fire” while on a mission to advise and assist local forces in Iraq.Ĭarter’s spokesman, Peter Cook, said the incident took place during an Islamic State attack on a peshmerga position some 3-5km behind the forward line. A US military official said the coalition had helped the peshmerga by conducting more than 20 air strikes with F-15 jets and drones. The Islamic State insurgents occupied the town at dawn on Tuesday but were driven out later in the day by the peshmerga. Keating’s grandfather, Charles H Keating Jr, who died in 2014 at age 90, was the notorious financier who served prison time for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s.Ī senior official within the Kurdish peshmerga forces facing Islamic State in northern Iraq said the man had been killed near the town of Tel Asqof, around 28km (17 miles) from the militant stronghold of Mosul. Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona identified the slain serviceman as Charlie Keating IV, and said Keating had attended high school in Phoenix. The Seals are considered to be among the most able US special operations forces and capable of taking on dangerous missions. “It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss,” the US defense secretary, Ash Carter, told reporters during a trip to Germany.
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