Say My Name, Say My Name

It’s almost a week since Eyal, Gilad and Naftali were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Israel. At yesterday’s State Department briefing Jen Psaki was able to call for restraint by Israel in our search for the kids but wasn’t able to name the US citizen who went missing. I’ve clipped the video relating to this subject.

Actually I’m rather glad. We know this US administration is just a dead weight around everybody’s necks when it comes to foreign affairs, lets hope they keep busy in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Libya, Egypt etc. and all the other places that have gone to hell in a hand basket under the reign of the  2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

This exchange happens at 4:32 in my edited video, I’ve cued it up but you can wind back to the start if you want.

QUESTION: Can I ask if you have a privacy waiver for the – one of the teenagers?
MS. PSAKI: We do, yes. So we can confirm that one of the kidnapped was an American citizen.
QUESTION: Which one?
MS. PSAKI: I believe his name has been reported. I don’t have it in front of me right now.
h/t to Jewish Press.

Here’s the full text of the questioning on this matter from the June 18th Daily Briefing.

QUESTION: Palestinian and Israeli —
MS. PSAKI: Sure.
QUESTION: — issues. As the search for the three teenagers goes into its sixth day, the Israelis are arresting hundreds of Palestinians, rounding up some or re-arresting in some cases many of the ones that were released. They’re having a clampdown, a lockdown. It’s really causing a very difficult humanitarian condition. Are you talking with the Israelis to sort of lighten – but I asked you this yesterday. Are you asking them to lighten up their heavy hand in their search?
MS. PSAKI: Well, Said, we’ve been in touch with both the Israelis and the Palestinians throughout the course of the last several days since these teenagers were kidnapped. We know this is a difficult time obviously on the ground. We’ve urged continued security cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the search for the kidnapped teenagers. We were encouraged by President Abbas’s strong statement to the Arab and Islamic foreign ministers today in Saudi Arabia. But – and certainly as the search continues and in our conversations, we urge both sides to exercise restraint and avoid the types of steps that could destabilize the situation. And that’s a message that we are conveying in all of our conversations as well.
QUESTION: So it would be more prudent for the Israelis to sort of search selectively and work and coordinate with the Palestinians rather than subject the whole Palestinian population to collective punishment?
MS. PSAKI: Well, our understanding is that there is security cooperation that’s ongoing —
QUESTION: Right.
MS. PSAKI: — and we encourage that to continue.
QUESTION: Well, wait. So I’m going to re-raise the questions I asked yesterday, which he kind of got – what – you do not believe at this moment that what the Israelis – that the Israeli operation to free – to find and free these teenagers is – amounts to collective punishment of Palestinians in the West Bank? Is that correct?
MS. PSAKI: Nothing has changed since what I said yesterday.
QUESTION: So no. But you have expressed concern to the Israelis that – I just want to make sure I understand. Have you expressed to the Israelis concern that an operation might become some form of collective punishment?
MS. PSAKI: I would not state it in those terms. We’ve – know this is a difficult and sensitive time and we’ve urged both sides to exercise restraint.
QUESTION: In the Secretary’s statement from Sunday he talked about how there are many signs that point to Hamas involvement in this.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Is that – are you now confident that Hamas is responsible for this, as confident as the Israelis say they are?
MS. PSAKI: No conclusion has been made on our end since the statement on Sunday, so we remain in the same place we were in the Secretary’s statement.
QUESTION: So you do not know or you do know that these teenagers are being held by Palestinian militants?
MS. PSAKI: We don’t have any other independent information.
QUESTION: Okay. You said that you had offered assistance to Israel.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Has that happened? Do you know? And do you know – if it has or even if it hasn’t – what specific kind of assistance you have offered?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t have any more details. I’m happy to see if it’s been accepted or if there are any specifics about what we may be able to offer on this front in the search for the three teenagers.
QUESTION: All right. And then I just want to draw a fine point of it. Is the U.S. – is the Administration concerned or not concerned about the Israeli operation and the impact that it’s having on the Palestinians?
MS. PSAKI: I think we recognize this is an incredibly sensitive —
QUESTION: Right.
MS. PSAKI: — and difficult circumstance on the ground, and we feel all sides should exercise restraint. So —
QUESTION: And thus far you believe that all sides have exercised restraint? Is that —
MS. PSAKI: We wouldn’t say all sides should exercise restraint if we felt all sides were at this point.
QUESTION: Oh. Okay. So which side, or maybe both have not —
MS. PSAKI: I’m just not going to have much more to add on this particular topic, Matt.
QUESTION: I – well, but it sounds as though you – you’re not convinced that – it sounds as though you think that either one side or both sides have been acting without restraint.
MS. PSAKI: I think it’s just important, given the circumstances, that they do moving forward. And I’m going to leave it at that.
QUESTION: Can I ask you about —
MS. PSAKI: Said.
QUESTION: The spokesman for Hamas said today, to the suggestion that they kidnapped these young Israelis, it’s stupid. Doesn’t that amount to sort of denying that they have done it?
MS. PSAKI: They may have. There’s obviously an investigation going on. There’s lots of accusations. I don’t have any other conclusion from here.
Go ahead, Jo.
QUESTION: Can I ask if you have a privacy waiver for the – one of the teenagers?
MS. PSAKI: We do, yes. So we can confirm that one of the kidnapped was an American citizen.
QUESTION: Which one?
MS. PSAKI: I believe his name has been reported. I don’t have it in front of me right now.
QUESTION: And what is the – is it the Consulate General in Jerusalem or the Embassy in Tel Aviv that’s involved in trying to provide consular services to the family and —
MS. PSAKI: I don’t have that level of detail. I’m happy to check and see which entity on the ground is in touch with the family. But we certainly are.
QUESTION: In your opinion, has Israel taken advantage of the situation to sort of break – tear down the infrastructure for this national unity government in its infancy?
MS. PSAKI: I’m just not going to have much more to add on that front, Said.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: On this at all, I just want to make sure that – yesterday, again, you were asked this question as well.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: But there’s – numerous Israeli officials have said that the U.S. decision to work with and continue to fund the Palestinian government, the new unity government, is – contributes – contributed to this incident with the three – is it – am I correct in thinking that you still would reject such an allegation?
MS. PSAKI: Yes, that is correct.
QUESTION: All right.
MS. PSAKI: Do we have a new topic? Are we done?

 

19 thoughts on “Say My Name, Say My Name”

  1. The Obama Administration has offered assistance to the Israeli government for the safe return of the three Israelis kidnapped and has called for restraint by both sides to resolve the matter. What kind of monsters are these Americans anyway? Better break off diplomatic relations this minute. Israel would be so much better off without American diplomatic, military and financial assistance. You should just go it alone, Brian.

        1. If he had one I expect he would. The way Israel hangs on every word of The Holy Obama, fearing his wrath, is reminiscent of the days of yore. Everyone needs a supreme being of one kind or another, even a multitude thereof.

        2. ahad_ha_amoratsim

          Jesus? Why would we need help from a dead Jewish heretic whose followers have murdered so many Jews in his name over the centuries?

          1. If Jesus knew what had been done over the centuries to his people in his name, he’d be rolling over in his grave.

    1. Israel has had done better without the help of the US administration, in 1967 for instance. It’s the kind of a friend with which you don’t need any enemies.

      1. Jim from Iowa

        Not saying you’re right or wrong; you certainly are entitled to your opinion to be freely expressed here. But I would like to point out that you are out of step with the vast majority of Israelis who value our friendship and who want to continue the strategic alliance with the United States.

        1. A friendship is when both parties respect each other and treat each other as equals. This kind of relatios is all welcome. But when America behaves as if Israel was their 51st state, it’s not a friendship.

          1. Your problem is not that. Your problem is that the President is a man who has no business holding the job that he does, and he has adjusted to his inadequacies not by appointing capable people who make up for his defects, but by appointing hacks who do not make him feel inadequate. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry all have several things in common. None had any experience as a line administrator when they took office. All had had staff who served their personal and professional interests but who had no abiding and impersonal institutional mission. All three are attorneys. Mrs. Clinton had a lucrative practice in Little Rock, but it was crucially dependent on connections. Also, from her very first year as a member of the bar, she was cited for unethical conduct. There was not that kind of manure sticking to Kerry or Obama. Both were hack lawyers who only practiced for a few years and never achieved any professional benchmarks that an outside observer could remark. Kerry is the son of a Foreign Service officer so has a general (if quite dated) familiarity with some of the mechanics of how business is done by the State Department. He’s also done some investigatory work in Congress and may be passably proficient in a foreign language. That’s about it.

      2. Israel is fairly close at this time to being able to decline further material aid from the United States bar perhaps transfers of technology and information sharing. It was in that position prior to 1973, when American aid was minimal. By 1984, American aid of various sorts was a contextually enormous subsidy (in excess of 12% of Israel’s gross domestic income). It has been gradually tapered and is now at a point (1.2% of gross domestic income) that support could be withdrawn over a business cycle without undue repercussions. Israel was carried through a political and economic crisis by American aid.

    2. ahad_ha_amoratsim

      No, better the US should say that the kidnapping of a US citizen is an outrage, mention him by name, and express sympathy to his family — at least as much as it has shown for a US soldier who deserted his post. And just maybe mention that it’s not helpful for the PA’s largest member, Abu Mazen’s own Fatah, to urge merchants to erase the tapes from their security cameras to prevent Israel from using the tapes to help find the kidnapped teens.
      Jim, I don’t even expect our president to express 1/10th of the outrage that he did when Israel announced that it would build apartments for Jews in Jerusalem. But SOME recognition would be nice.
      That said, at least she resisted Said’s attempts to manipulate her into calling the search effort collective punishment.

  2. which news service did the reporter represent?

    collective punishment?

    hamas operatives have been arrested

    so is the reporter saying that all fakestinians are hamas?

  3. Hard Little Machine

    What does it matter anymore? Anyway, the same 70% of idiot American Jews would vote for Obama eight more times if they could and if Hillary shows up wearing a hijab and waving an AK-47 over her head they’ll vote for her even harder.

    1. The thing is, Israel is an issue that influences the internal discussion within the Democratic Party. American Jews have a portfolio of sub-cultural loyalties and associated ideological and policy shticks which make a Republican affiliation scarcely conceivable. The behavior of this and that administration is going to induce net gains or net losses amounting to no more than 20% of the Jewish electorate. George McGovern and Jimmy Carter had surface characteristics that Jews react negatively to, which benefited their opposition. The elder and younger George Bush also had characteristics which Jews dislike. Obama does not push those sorts of buttons, so he gets bodacious support even though it’s a reasonable inference that his private attitude toward Israel is Eurotrashy.

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