At today’s Daily Press Briefing Associated Press reporter Matt Lee grills State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland about US silence over Israel’s deadly attacks on civilians in Gaza.
He chides her over the ‘quiet diplomacy’:
Well, you’ve been doing your private diplomacy for almost a week now, how’s it going so far?
She dodges his bullets time and again. But he gets something out of her when he pushes her to make a statement regarding Turkey’s statement that Israel was engaging in terrorism.
QUESTION: And yet you won’t stick up for your ally, Israel, when the Turks, another one of your allies, say that they’re engaged in terrorism in Gaza?
MS. NULAND: We have been extremely clear about our concern for Israel’s security, about the fact that Israel has a right to self-defense, but I am not going to go further than that today, Matt.
QUESTION: Why can’t you say that you don’t agree with the Turks?
MS. NULAND: Because I’m not going to get into a public spitting match with allies on either side. We’re just not going to do that, okay?
QUESTION: And you think that that’s worse? A public spitting match with one of your allies is worse than hundreds of people dying every day?
MS. NULAND: I don’t understand the question here. There’s not a question here. You’re just looking for a fight. Let’s go.
Said.
QUESTION: No, no, no. The fight is already on.
MS. NULAND: Yeah. Absolutely.
QUESTION: The fight’s going on over there.
MS. NULAND: Absolutely.
QUESTION: And you guys, by refusing to say anything about what you’re trying to do or refusing to say whether you agree or disagree with comments that are being made by your allies or others —
MS. NULAND: We —
QUESTION: — that makes things worse, not better.
MS. NULAND: We, of course, agree that rhetorical attacks against Israel are not helpful at this moment.
QUESTION: Okay.
MS. NULAND: Is that what you were looking for, Matt?
QUESTION: Yes. Thank you. Yes.
MS. NULAND: Thank you.
when the full contours of the latest sleazy deal we entered into with israel are exposed I think we’ll all be aghast – how does israel do this to us again and again and again?: make us their funder/protector/whipping boy/patsy/useful fool – what did we negotiate for in return for letting Bibi commit another round of genocide against Gaza?
guy broke the ice
Erdogan aptly and correctly called Israel a Terrorist State today
NATO member now thinks Israel is a Terrorist State
“Those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes in the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza,” Erdogan told a conference of the Eurasian Islamic Council in Istanbul.
“For this reason, I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts,”
Israel is so sensitive that rhetorical attacks hurt it, deeply.
Why didn’t she add:
“Hey listen up everybody, let Israel slaughter a few thousand civilians. OK? When the dust settles, then, and only then, will we consider telling Israel that it’s actions are unhelpful — like, you know, like we do on the settlements issue.
I don’t get it, Nuland states rhetorical statements against Israel aren’t helpful and he just folds on that and there’s something positive in that? The guy should have insisted on the silence of the Administration in the face of the ongoing slaughter of civilians. This is the excuse the Administration uses for silencing criticism of Israel and he folded on that excuse.
Israel and the U.S. gov’t are on the SAME side so I will not be aghast; there is no deal. It is the way the empire works with its compradores and colleagues in crime. This is blatantly apparent, especially since Pres. Johnson let Israel attack the Liberty and covered it up. The cost was too high to let Americans know whose side the U.S. government was on.
We are all in the same boat as the Gazans, so to speak. They are on the cutting edge of U.S./Israel policy right now, but we are all in their sights.