A reporter suggested at Tuesday’s U.S. State Department press briefing that Washington is “putting your both hands on this conflict and not allowing somebody else to take any actions to pressure Israel.”
“You’ll not allow the U.N. Security Council to put any pressure. Any other countries or international agency in the world who will criticize Israel with an action, you will go against,” the reporter said. “And so you are actually holding this conflict with two hands and not allowing others to act.”
Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, rejected the ostensible question.
“First of all, I think the evidence of the past 11 months would very much contradict the idea that we can prevent any country in the world from criticizing Israel because there has been inordinate criticism of Israel,” Miller said. “There have been resolutions passed at the United Nations.”
“Countries are free to take the steps that they want,” Miller said. “You have seen a number of them across the world do that.”
“I get to play devil’s advocate here—when those countries tell you that maybe you should do something by toning down your support for Israel, you say no, that’s not just—that’s just not going to happen, correct?” Matt Lee, the Associated Press diplomatic writer, said.
“We obviously have a different assessment of what’s productive and what’s not,” Miller said.
