Matt Lee’s highly targeted strike on the Obama Administrations crippling hypocrisy, which Israellycool posted within minutes of the end of the State Department press conference, certainly started a social media storm. Our post received big traffic, YNet ripped off our video (adding Hebrew subtitles) and it was covered in a number of other places.
It has got at least some attention beyond social media as this blistering OpEd in the NY Post today is pretty short and to the point:
Israel-bashing just came back to haunt the State Deptartment
Memo to the State Department: It’s time to think twice about knee-jerk criticism of Israel. You never know when it might turn around and bite you.
Just that happened when Associated Press reporter Matt Lee caught deputy State spokesman Mark Toner by surprise at a briefing this week. Lee asked about Saturday’s US bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that left 22 patients and staff dead.
The administration has called the attack a tragic mistake. But Lee recalled Israel’s August 2014 shelling of a UN school in Gaza — which State immediately labeled “disgraceful,” adding: “The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”
Lee asked: Does that policy still hold?
Toner was at a complete loss. He haltingly apologized for the loss of life, stressed that the United States avoids civilian casualties, said any further comment would be “too much speculation” and begged Lee to “give me a pass [while] we wait for the investigation to run its course.”
That’s a pretty reasonable position, actually. But it flies in the face of last year’s instantaneous criticism of Israel — made long before any investigation had even begun.
Read the rest: Israel-bashing just came back to haunt the State Deptartment
It would be nice to see some more pieces like this picking up on Matt Lee’s work. If you see one, please bring it to my attention. I’m not holding my breath for the New York Times, but perhaps a few others might do something.
