In 1979, the United States' Ambassador to the United Nations was Andrew Young. As part of a series of negotiations regarding the Middle East, Ambassador Young needed to discuss something with Zehdi Terzi, the Palestine Liberation Organization's "observer" at the UN.
[Ambassador Young] met Terzi "accidentally on purpose" at a lunch at the Kuwaiti Ambassador's residence in 1979. Young claims that the State Department and the Israeli foreign ministry both knew in advance about the meeting, but, once it was leaked, President Jimmy Carter fired him.
Why was the lunch date so disastrous? Because, in the language of diplomats, the United States did not "recognize" the Palestine Liberation Organization. Which in a way is kind of odd, since this figure was eminently recognizable.
But while we in the United States did not "recognize" this organization, a number of people do. And this continues today. Most of the world can travel to Cuba any time they desire; I, as a citizen of the United States, am restricted in my travel there. A couple of my friends recently returned from a trip to North Korea - something I could never contemplate doing. When I'm at work, there are particular U.S. laws that I have to follow - not only when dealing with people from North Korea and Cuba, but also when dealing with people from allied countries such as France.
And it's not the case that the United States is a stick in the mud and the rest of the world is free and easy. For example, back on April 15, 2011, the British newspaper The Sun was banned from mentioning the name of Ryan Giggs. And in the same way that I am restricted from visiting Cuba, there are people from many countries who are restricted from visiting Israel.
And just to prove the point, I'm going to try something. On occasion, I've tried to increase the readership of this blog from certain sections of the world. Now, my goal is to increase my readership from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Even though my country, the United States of America, does not recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Even though I'm not sure if my analytics provider recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
And even though the Internet TINC does not recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. (TINC is defined in Uncyclopedia.)
