I’m fixated on changes in the mainstream media, and here is another one. The Associated Press put out a story about the visa waiver that Sen. Barbara Boxer is pushing for Israelis who visit the U.S.; and the story openly states that Boxer has a double standard, because Americans would not get “equal treatment” from Israel.

Reporter Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle interviews Sandra Tamari, the Palestinian-American deported by Israel last year, and Tamari says that Boxer’s bill would create second-class citizenship for Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans. Sydney Morning Herald:

Senator Barbara Boxer is proposing to add Israel to that list [of 37 countries whose citizens don’t need visas to enter the US] – but without requiring equal treatment for Americans travelling to Israel.

Instead, the legislation the Democratic senator has introduced would exempt Israeli visitors from visa requirements as long as the US government certifies that Israel “has made every reasonable effort, without jeopardising the security of the state of Israel,” to admit Americans without a visa.

What that means, according to critics of the Israeli government, is that Israel can continue to exclude Americans who are either Arab or Muslim, or who belong to groups that oppose Israeli policies. Requiring a visa for visitors allows the government to bar them from entering, or to limit their activities or the length of their stay.The main purpose, Senator Boxer’s office said, is “increasing visits between our two countries, boosting tourism and strengthening the economies of both countries.”…

But Jewish Voice for Peace cites the case of a woman who said she learnt from experience that not all tourists are welcome in Israel.

Sandra Tamari, a US-born citizen of Palestinian descent, a Quaker and a member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee in St Louis, said she went with an interfaith group of about 30 people to visit the West Bank in May 2012.

She said Israeli authorities pulled her aside at the airport in Tel Aviv, asked her about her family and her background, then jailed her overnight and put her on a plane back to the US.

While in custody, she said, she telephoned the US embassy. Ms Tamari said the person who took her call asked her immediately if she was Jewish, and, when she said she wasn’t, replied, “Then there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

Ms Tamari said the State Department later told her she must have misunderstood the embassy official…

Regardless of current US policies, Ms Tamari said in an interview last week, Senator Boxer’s bill would change US law and “create a second-class citizenship category for Arab Americans, for Palestinian Americans, for Muslim Americans.”