Israel and “Self-defense”
A few newsletters ago I mentioned that the boring press conference was back. Things are no longer liable to go off the rails and devolve into confounding piffle. The misrepresentation of the truth is once again monotonous.
Enter Ned Price, State Department spokesperson. Harvard Kennedy School. Job at the CIA in his early 20s. Special Assistant to Obama.
This week, while Israel bombarded Gaza, he told the press that states have the right to defend themselves. Said Arikat, Washington Bureau Chief for al-Quds, had some follow-up questions. Here’s the State Department’s official transcript:
QUESTION: Thank you, Ned. I want to ask you about East Jerusalem, but let’s talk about what you said about the principle of self-defense. Does that in any way apply to the Palestinians? Do they have a right to self-defense? Do Palestinians have a right to self-defense?
MR PRICE: I’m – in – broadly speaking, Said, we believe in the concept of self-defense. We believe it applies to any state. I don’t think that —
QUESTION: All right. I —
MR PRICE: I certainly wouldn’t want my words to be construed as —
QUESTION: No, I understand. I want to ask on East Jerusalem. I don’t want to harp on this either. But the Israelis killed 13 people just now, including maybe five or six children. Do you condemn that? Do you condemn the killing of children?
MR PRICE: Said —
QUESTION: I’m asking: Do you condemn the killing of Palestinian children?
MR PRICE: Obviously – and these reports are just emerging. And I understand – I was just speaking to the team. I understand we don’t have independent confirmation of facts on the ground yet, so I’m very hesitant to get into reports that are just emerging.
Obviously, the deaths of civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinians, are something we would take very seriously.
Of course the reports have since been verified and there’s been no condemnation from the Biden administration, but I digress. The AP’s Matt Lee picked up on something interesting in Price’s response. Later in the press conference he followed up on it:
QUESTION: Just a – it will be extremely brief. One, in your response to Said’s earlier question about whether the Palestinians have a right to self-defense, your answer, you’re going to know as soon as I read what your answer was that there’s a big problem with it. You said – well, not a problem, it just doesn’t answer the question. We believe that it, meaning the right to self-defense, applies to any state. Well, you see the problem, right? Yes?
MR PRICE: Do you want to —
QUESTION: Do regard Palestine as a state?
MR PRICE: I wasn’t referring —
QUESTION: Do you think —
MR PRICE: But it —
QUESTION: You don’t in the context of the ICC and the UN.
MR PRICE: I —
QUESTION: So are you saying that you do not – if it applies to any state, are you saying the Palestinians don’t have a right to self-defense?
MR PRICE: I was making a broader point not attached to Israel or the Palestinians in that case.
QUESTION: So they do have a right to self-defense?
MR PRICE: Matt, I’m not —
QUESTION: No, no, no, it’s not that difficult a question.
MR PRICE: I’m not in a position to debate the legalities from up here.
So Israel has the right to pummel Palestine and kill dozens of civilians. However, when the occupied population fights back, Price isn’t in a position to debate legalities.
The next day Price was asked if Israel’s response could still be chalked up to self-defense. Would the Biden administration do anything to deter Israel and were they concerned that Netanyahu had promised to escalate the violence?
MR PRICE: We stand by Israel’s right to defend itself. We also stand by the principle that Palestinians deserve the right to live in safety and security. I’m not here to adjudicate military operations, to say what is proportional precisely, what is not.
So rocket attacks from Hamas are readily condemned in the harshest language, but Price isn’t here to adjudicate military operations when they come from the other side.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken put it more directly while responding to a reporter this week: “There is a very clear and absolute distinction between the terrorist organization Hamas that is indiscriminately raining down rockets targeting civilians, and Israel’s response defending itself, targeting the terrorists raining down rockets on Israel.”
Of course this distinction is only clear within the United States’ spectrum of acceptable opinion and that’s what these press conferences are intended to uphold.
Yang and NYC
It’s not exactly news that a NYC mayoral candidate is terrible on the subject of Israel, but Andrew Yang’s recent troubles indicate that the terrain might be shifting in the city.
We’ve covered the local backlash to Yang’s anti-BDS stance in this newsletter before, but things picked up this week for obvious reasons. While Palestinians ran for cover Yang tweeted, “I’m standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists. The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.”
The candidate’s erasure of Palestinian suffering was justifiably attacked all over social media, but he received praise from a handful of notable ghouls. It turns out the Yang Gang includes Stephen Miller and Ted Cruz.
Yang was set to attend a food distribution event in Astoria and, as a former resident of that neighborhood, I can’t think of a worse place to show up after sending out a tweet like that. Never mind the fact that Eid began on Wednesday.
The organizers told Yang not to come. He showed up at Astoria Park nonetheless and was immediately confronted by New Yorkers telling him that they wouldn’t vote for him. He told a woman that any loss of life is “heartbreaking”, but refused to condemn Israel’s actions.
Yang’s tweet even prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to weigh in on the mayoral race for the first time. “Utterly shameful for Yang to try to show up to an Eid event after sending out a chest-thumping statement of support for a strike killing 9 children, especially after his silence as Al-Aqsa was attacked,” she wrote.
AOC has been criticized by some on the left for trying to have it both ways on Palestine and some pointed out that she should also extend this kind of criticism to powerful pro-Israel lawmakers within her own party, like Nancy Pelosi.
Of course AOC should criticize Pelosi, but it’s worth pointing out that the people confronting Yang are her constituents. The state’s most popular politician saying something about a mayoral candidate is not insignificant and the criticism Yang has received should not be dismissed. This development should be understood within the context of deeper shifts in New York. It comes after DSA (an organization that backs BDS) has permeated local politics and after Eliot Engel was ousted by Jamaal Bowman.
Thousands of New Yorkers hit the streets in solidarity with Palestine this week. “You might ask yourself, what can you do in New York City to make sure that our brothers, our sisters, our family beyond the binary in Palestine are safe and free and receive justice?” Zohran Mamdani, a New York State Assembly member who represents Astoria, declared at a rally. “You can put pressure on every single elected officials. At the city council, at the state assembly, at the state senate. We have elected officials who are taking paid-for trips to Israel. They are going there paid for by your tax dollars. They show up at Israel Day parades and say, ‘We stand in solidarity. We want to let them know that there are three letters we have as an answer to what is happening in Palestine and it’s B-D-S.”
The reality is that Palestine used to be third rail issue, even among some sectors of the left. It has become a litmus test.
Odds & Ends
? You can follow our live blog for updates on what’s happening in Palestine.
✉️ 25 House members signed a letter urging the Biden administration to stop the displacement of Palestinians and investigate how U.S. aid is being used in Sheikh Jarrah. The letter was led by Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI).
?? This headline says a lot about U.S. politics: “Cruz to introduce anti-BDS amendment to bill countering Chinese tech advancement”
? Middlebury College is refusing to support a Palestinian student who was harassed for criticizing Israel. Palestine Legal has the details at their site.
✉️ Over 100 Democratic Party leaders sent a letter to President Biden on Palestine: “We must not allow U.S. tax dollars to be the currency for ethnic cleansing for Israeli apartheid.”
? Gal Gadot’s statement on the current situation was somehow worse than Wonder Woman 1984.
? In contrast, here’s The Incredible Hulk: “1500 Palestinians face expulsion in #Jerusalem. 200 protesters have been injured. 9 children have been killed. Sanctions on South Africa helped free its black people – it’s time for sanctions on Israel to free Palestinians. Join the call. #SheikhJarrah“
? A tweet from WWE wrestler Sami Zayn: “Watching politicians & commentators rush to wrap Israeli military aggression in a cloak of victimhood, while omitting the crimes towards the Palestinians is beyond shameful. The hypocrisy in the discourse & the callous indifference towards the Palestinian people is appalling.”
?? From a joint statement by Palestinians in North America on Nakba Day:
“To this day, colonization and dispossession remain ongoing processes, where Palestinians continue to endure land theft and encroachments on their basic rights. Despite the multiple decades of Zionist brutality, our resilient people remain committed to resisting Zionist settler-colonialism and to the liberation of Palestine.”
?? Find a Palestine solidarity protest near you this weekend.
Save Sheikh Jarrah,
Michael
