State Department spokesperson Matt Miller is an expert at tiptoeing between the raindrops flung at him by the press corps during his daily briefings.
However, one journalist with him he faces a special challenge is Said Arikat, the Washington bureau chief for the Al Quds Daily, a Palestinian Authority Arabic-language daily newspaper based in Jerusalem.
Arikat tends to use the press credentials that allow him a seat in the State Department briefing room as a soapbox upon which to pontificate on the evils of the State of Israel.
Miller is forced to deal with this ridiculous drama almost daily. Here’s the latest example of the nonsense Arikat spews forth — including ancient antisemitic tropes about Jews and money, and deliberate misidentification of IDF targets as civilians instead of the terrorists they are — and the spokesperson’s measured response in Wednesday’s briefing.
ARIKAT: I wonder if you would comment on the situation in the West Bank. Yesterday, the Israeli occupation forces killed 10 Palestinians, basically executed them. And of course, they were holding money. They were seizing the money and so on. The situation is really deteriorating in the West Bank. It’s – in many places is not much better than what’s going on in Gaza.
MR MILLER: So two different things in your question. With respect to anti-terrorism operations that Israel has conducted, they have a right to defend themselves. They have a right to conduct anti-terrorism operations. I saw that in the reports of some of those Palestinians who were killed, you had Palestinian Islamic Jihad praising them as members of the resistance, and members of the armed resistance. So those are obviously people that Israel has a right to conduct legitimate terrorism operations against.
When it comes to the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, however, that’s a different matter. We have made very clear that Israel needs to release all of that money. It’s Palestinian money. And you have seen our diplomatic engagements on this question over the past several months produce results time and time again. Not all of the money has been released, but a very significant portion of the money that at times Israel has withheld has been released as a result of the work that we have put into this.
Ed. Note: Notice that Miller does not challenge Arikat’s antisemitic trope about Israeli forces, “of course they were holding money, they were seizing money.”
ARIKAT: So Israel has a right to use fighter planes, fighter jets to fight – by the United States – against an occupied people —
MR MILLER: I’m not going to speak to —
ARIKAT: — who really have no means of protecting themselves?
MR MILLER: So I’m not – I’m not going to speak to each strike or each specific tactic, but they do have – they do have the right to – when there are people – when there are militants who are launching, plotting terrorist operations against Israel, of course they have the right —
ARIKAT: But —
MR MILLER: — no – of course they have the right to carry out strikes and other anti-terrorism operations to defend against those – to defend against terrorism.
It’s not clear why the State Department, which has an office to combat antisemitism, nevertheless gives Arikat an open forum at nearly every briefing.
Why is Arikat allowed to use his press credentials to proclaim his hate with insidious lies about Israel on a near-daily basis in the presence of dozens of other media outlets?
