There was a exchange this week between an Associated Press reporter, Matt Lee, and spokesperson Victoria Nuland during the U.S. State Department’s daily briefing Monday on the continued violence between Israel and Hamas.
The exchange was centered around Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who on Monday referred to Israel as “a terrorist state“.
So far, the White House has chosen silence as its response to Erdogan’s intensely anti-Israel rhetoric, a policy that the Associated Press’ Matt Lee seemed to think created more harm than good.
LEE: “How do you — this whole thing of saying nothing, I’m not sure I understand why you think that that’s helpful to the situation. You say that it would not be helpful for you to discuss any of your conversations, that quiet diplomacy is the way to de-escalate that. Well, you’ve been doing your quiet diplomacy now for almost a week. How’s it going so far?”
NULAND: “We are working hard with the parties. We’re working hard with –”.
LEE: “Hasn’t it occurred to anybody that maybe being less quiet might get more results, though? Squeaky wheel gets grease, that kind of thing?”
NULAND: “I’ll let the –”
LEE: “You’re being silent while people are dying left and right.”
NULAND: “Matt, we are being far from silent. The President has –”
LEE: “You’re not telling us anything about what you’re – when the Turks come out – when the leaders of Turkey come out and say that Israel is engaged in acts of terrorism and you refuse to say that you don’t agree with that – or maybe you do agree with it – that’s being silent.”
NULAND: “Matt, we have made a decision that we need to engage in our diplomatic work diplomatically. We have been very, very clear about where we stand on this, which is that – which is –”
LEE: “And that’s because you don’t practice diplomacy from the podium? Is that what you’re getting back to? 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?”
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,” Nuland responded.
LEE: “Why can’t you say that you don’t agree with the Turks?”
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?”
LEE: “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?”
NULAND: “Rhetorical attacks against Israel are not helpful at this moment.”
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