Friday, December 16, 2011

Spokesperson Puts Spokes in Briefing

My Right Word

(with thanks to BT)

This is from the Daily Press Briefing of Victoria Nuland, State Department Spokesperson in Washington, DC yesterday, December 14, 2011 and it displays on the one hand, ignorance and on the other, misrepresentation - by both sides of the briefing:

QUESTION: Yes, ma’am. Do you have any comment on the burning of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem today by settlers, a very well-known settler? It was, matter of fact, Baruch Marzel.
[WT...? Baruch Marzel isn't linked to this. And what Al-Aqsa mosque? The mosque defaced is The Nebi Akashi mosque, on Strauss Street in downtown Jerusalem, and is used by the municipality to store gardening supplies. Is he mixing up the ramp approach matter? And what "settlers"?] MS. NULAND: We do, in fact. We condemn in strongest possible terms today’s burning and vandalizing of the mosque in Jerusalem. There is never any justification for an attack on a place of worship. We have called for calm on the part of all parties. We would also note that the Israeli Government has pledged to investigate these attacks and to bring the perpetrators to justice. We also encourage local authorities to work together with the communities to reduce tension and to defend religious freedom.
[is there a similar denunciation on record after the wholesale removal of tons of earth from within the Temple Mount, resulting in irreparable damage to the archaeology and desecration of a Jewish holy site?]

...QUESTION: Okay. Now, to follow up just on recent sister activities, there’s a great deal of activity under the name of “price tag” that the settlers are doing, and they are trying to make a point to the Israeli Government that if you withdraw from the settlement, this is what we are going to do. As we have seen last week, they have actually crossed into Jordanian territory and so on. So do you think – do you believe that perhaps these – the settler activity is a result of not taking any kind of strong action against settlements?
[Actually, those who broke into a Christian baptismal site late Monday were in a closed military zone along the Jordanian-Israeli border. Jordanian officials said the Israelis did not cross the border into Jordan.]

MS. NULAND: A result of Israeli Government policy?

QUESTION: A result of, let’s say, even the United States Government not taking a very strong position on settlement activities?

MS. NULAND: A result of United States policy?

QUESTION: Well, it’s Israel and --

QUESTION: I mean, this is a – the settlements – you issue statements about the – how it is not helpful in the peace process, but in fact, they are illegal, [no, they aren't] and perhaps if the United States Government and other European governments and so on take a position that they remain illegal, perhaps they can stem that kind of emboldened settlement activities.

MS. NULAND: We have made absolutely clear where we are on settlements. We’ve also made clear that we don’t support violence or desecration of any kind, so – but I certainly can’t speak to what’s motivating the settler activity. That’s a question for them.

QUESTION: And last week, the Israeli army fired a tear gas at a peaceful [who was throwing stones and attempting to injure, if not kill, security personnel] demonstrator. They killed him, they shut the door, and they went on with no investigation whatsoever. And today, there as a fatwa [is this a reporter or a religious issued by four rabbis that actually called on the Israeli army to kill Palestinians that may be throwing stones. Do you have a position on that?

MS. NULAND: First of all, I’ve never heard of rabbis issuing fatwahs, [good for her!] but if --

QUESTION: Well, you know what I mean. I’m saying – (laughter). Fatwah is an Islamic word that’s become to mean an edict, you know.

MS. NULAND: We condemn incitements to violence of any kind, obviously, so – ...


But there was appreciation for Israel in there:

QUESTION: Okay. Because Mr. Barak has been issuing some really strong statements saying that the Middle East will be better off without Asad and so on. Do you think that is – actually may not be helping the situation in Syria?

MS. NULAND: The Administration, the President, have said very clearly that we believe it’s time for Asad to go.

QUESTION: So you think that Mr. Barak’s rhetoric falls in line with the Administration’s rhetoric on Syria?

MS. NULAND: Again, we haven’t said anything different from each other at this stage.


Despite that last bit, if this is what goes on at press briefings, journalism is being given a bad reputation, and Ms. Nuland isn't far behind.

No comments: