State Department

Illustrative photo of Israeli Border Police officers frogmarching a Palestinian detainee in East Jerusalem during the tension surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque, July 21, 2017, East Jerusalem. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Palestinian rights make a rare appearance in Congress

A first-of-its-kind bill introduced this week focusing on the rights of Palestinian children could pave the way for greater transparency and accountability in America’s dealings with Israel. Members of Congress on Tuesday introduced a bill requiring the U.S. Secretary of State to certify that funds bound for Israel “do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or…

By Samer Badawi November 15, 2017

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert addresses reporters at the daily press briefing. (State Dept photo)

Forget Friedman. The State Dept doesn’t know how much of the West Bank is occupied either

While disavowing the American ambassador’s erroneous assertion that only 2% of the West Bank is occupied by Israel, the State Department spokesperson isn’t able to answer how much of the territory is actually occupied. (Hint: All of it.) U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman caused a small stir Thursday by erroneously stating that Israel only…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 29, 2017

A view of the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the West Bank, October 6, 2016. The new settlement that angered the United States is being portrayed as a neighborhood of Shilo, but Shilo’s boundaries have been redrawn to include the site that is over 1 kilometer away. (Flash90)

The U.S. isn’t going to do a damn thing to end the occupation

As long as Washington views ending the occupation as an Israeli problem instead of a Palestinian problem, it will never even consider using its leverage to do so. The United States issued an unusually sharp rebuke on Wednesday to news that Israel is building a brand new settlement in the West Bank. The State Department…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man October 6, 2016

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press conference in Jerusalem, March 23, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Netanyahu responds to Leahy with a strange string of lies

The prime minister shoots off a sharply worded letter to a senior American senator who dared question Israel’s human rights record. That Netanyahu thinks anyone reading it will do anything but howl is worrying sign about his judgement. In mid-February, Senator Patrick Leahy, together with 10 other Democratic Senators, wrote a letter asking U.S. Secretary…

By Dahlia Scheindlin March 30, 2016

Members of the ‘Clown Army’ confront Israeli security forces during a solidarity protest in the Palestinian village of Susya, June 22, 2012. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Has the IDF found a way to climb down the Susya tree?

Up against extraordinarily harsh diplomatic pressure from its closest allies, Israel seems to have found a way to save face without creating too much of a fuss — at least temporarily. With more or less the entire Western world warning Israel not to demolish the Palestinian village of Susya and forcefully displace its residents, it…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man July 26, 2015

Then American Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell exits an armored diplomatic vehicle at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel, Gaza and Egypt, June 30, 2010. (Photo by ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock.com)

U.S. Consulate desegregates security staff, Israeli guards quit in protest

Unnamed Israeli guards working for the American consulate in Jerusalem say it is irresponsible for the U.S. to train its Palestinian guards in tactical driving, weapons use, accuse it of ‘raising a Palestinian militia,’ Ynet reports. A number of Israeli guards working for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem quit in protest of a decision to…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 16, 2015

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Deputy Chief of Staff Jon Finer, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, and State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki. (State Dept. Photo)

When Israel grabs land, the U.S. grabs a thesaurus [satire]

The U.S. State Department spokesperson and her deputy are finding it difficult to continue condemning Israeli plans to build more settlements in the West Bank. Marie Harf, Deputy State Department Spokesperson: Hi Jen. Jen Psaki, State Department Spokesperson: Hi Marie, sup? Harf: Not much. Hey, did you see Obama’s suit? Psaki: I know, right?? What’s…

By Ami Kaufman September 1, 2014

File photo of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, with State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki in the background, conducting a press conference, February 18, 2014.(Photo: State Dept.)

State Department stumbles: If not apartheid, then what?

Asked what word Secretary Kerry would have used in place of ‘apartheid,’ his use of which stirred up a small storm in the U.S. this week, the State Department is hard pressed to give an answer. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the State Department on Tuesday were scrambling to diffuse the storm that…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 30, 2014

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry following their meeting in Jerusalem, December 5, 2013. (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Israel suspends talks, and Washington’s hypocrisy on Hamas

By suspending talks over Hamas’s inclusion in the Palestinian leadership, Netanyahu is proving that he was never seeking either a legitimate partner, or a legitimate peace. The Israeli government announced that it is suspending peace talks with the Palestinians on Thursday as a response to the reconciliation deal signed a day earlier by Hamas and the…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 24, 2014

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton with PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: GPO/Avi Ohayun)

Recognizing that Europe and the U.S. support the occupation

On both sides of the Atlantic, the consensus on the need to avoid and resolve confrontations with Israel at all costs guarantees that diplomacy will not change the trends on the ground in the foreseeable future. There are more and more signs that Israel and the EU are about to resolve the mini-crisis created by…

By Noam Sheizaf October 27, 2013

A U.S. passport (Illustrative photo: Shutterstock.com)

How American Jewish leaders are undermining two-state solution – via Jerusalem

Considering the U.S. sees East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state within the framework of any viable two-state solution, mainstream American Jewish leaders’ insistence that Israel should be listed as the birthplace in Jerusalem-born American citizens’ passports undermines U.S. foreign policy and the two-state solution. This article was originally published in The…

By Mairav Zonszein July 28, 2013