State Dept Won't Denounce Israeli Fascism

Sam Husseini questions Ned Price. "Judge Governments on Their Actions" but refuses to deal with the most pro-violent ministers who are now charged with overseeing the West Bank.

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The Feb. 27 State Department news conference began with a statement on the Aqaba meeting and Ned Price then took questions. To my surprise, Matt Lee and Said Arikat, who usually ask the first questions in a situation like this, were not there. So I didn’t expect to jump in on this, but did so. State Department spokesperson Ned Price would not denounce outright fascistic members of the Israeli government, such as Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. When asked about Israel’s government action, Price said we “judge governments on their actions”.

NED PRICE: The de-escalation of tensions, especially now, is imperative. It was imperative prior to this weekend. …

SAM HUSSEINI: The Israeli press is already reporting that some members of Netanyahu’s government are saying that there will be no settlement freeze. Some of these members have been deemed outright fascistic; they’ve praised Baruch Goldstein who massacred Palestinians. Isn’t it imperative to address what they represent and what they are at this point?

PRICE: None of these members are the prime minister of Israel. We work directly with the prime minister, with his team, with our direct counterparts. We are going to – and this applies to governments around the world – judge governments on their actions. We think it is important that Palestinians live up to the commitments they made at Aqaba; we think it’s important that Israelis live up to the commitments that they’ve made at Aqaba.

QUESTION: Is that —

HUSSEINI: Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute just had a piece charging that the Biden administration has effectively given Israel a green light to possibly attack Iran. Is the administration in any way, shape, or form tacitly giving Israel a green light to attack Iran? And what would the administration response be to such an attack?

PRICE: I’m happy to come back to that, but before we move on to Iran, anything else on Is‑Pal? …

Full transcript. Full video.