Toner handled Arikat fairly well, suggesting that Abbas is still the leader of the Palestinian Arab people and “we look to our political leadership to send a clear message to the public,” and that “as a society we take our cues from our political leadership.”
Nicely done.
COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT, OCCUPATION
Arikat then took another stab at a point he began to hone last week: whether various security measures taken by Israel, such as neighborhood closures and other measures fell under “collective punishment.” Arikat is the guy who really should be credited both with getting the State Department to label certain Israeli security actions as “excessive punishment” and other Israeli actions as terrorism. He also tripped Kirby into something like admitting that Israel was not maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount.
Toner deftly parried this thrust as well, raising the right and obligation of the Israeli government to defend its citizens and the heightened fear amongst the Israeli population, given the ongoing attacks.
Arikat had one more bow in his quiver.
The Occupation.
Arikat asked whether it was accurate to say that Israel was exercising self-defense “in territories that it has occupied militarily for so many decades.”
But Toner was having none of it. He again raised the ongoing attacks “against innocent Israeli citizens.”
BEER SHEVA
What Toner may not have counted on was some other reporters waiting to bait him into attacking Israel.
This time it was Brad Klapper of the Associated Press.
Klapper wanted Toner to comment on the death of the innocent Eritrean man during the terrorist attack at the Beer Sheva bus station. Despite Toner’s best efforts to continue talking about the sense of anxiety amongst the Israeli populace during this wave of terrorism, Klapper became intent on getting Toner to comment on the attack by people in the bus station on the wounded Eritrean.
But to his credit Toner repeatedly quoted the mayor of Beer Sheva who had urged people not to take the law into their own hands. Toner also said that Israel had already begun an investigation into the matter.
But before too long, Arikat reawakened, characterizing the mood of the people in the Beer Sheva bus station as a lynch mob. Yes, he did. An Arab Palestinian reporter was accusing Israelis of being a lynch mob. Israelis, who have been living through a wave of vicious attacks on civilians and who thought they were pummeling a terrorist in the aftermath of a brutal attack, those Arikat described as members of a lynch mob.
Really. How dare he?
But Toner kept his cool. He didn’t adopt any words he didn’t want to, and he kept on message. Finally.