Israel Matzav

State Dept. spox can't remember name of US citizen kidnapped by Hamas

Here's a clip from Wednesday's State Department briefing in which State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki can't remember the name of the US citizen kidnapped by Hamas.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Israellycool). Transcript and more follow.

Transcript:

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?

Say it real slowly Ms. Psaki so that it will sink into your goyishe kop: N-A-F-T-A-L-I F-R-A-E-N-K-E-L.

Is Ms. Psaki incompetent or indifferent?

Labels: incompetent, Jen Psaki, kidnapping, Matt Lee, Palestinian terrorism, US State Department

Incompetent or intentional?

Is President Obama incompetent or is his behavior intentional? Before I give you former Congressman Allen West's (R-Fl) answer, let me give you mine. His behavior is intentional. The fact that he's also incompetent is probably his only saving grace. Were he not so blatant about it, we would probably all be a lot worse off. By the way, that's one of the worst pictures of Mooch I can recall....

There are too many instances of destabilization of our economy – not to mention our national security — to believe this is just incompetence. It’s getting too easy to connect the dots between our foreign policy of snubbing allies and courting enemies, slow dismantling of our military readiness, money-printing, and control of education through Common Core. How can an entire administration be that incompetent? What do you think? Is there is an intentional nefarious design at play?

Yes...

Labels: Allen West, Barack Hussein Obama, incompetent

A truly historic level of foreign policy incompetence on the part of the White House got us to this point

Peggy Noonan explains why Vladimir Putin wrote a very aggressive op-ed in the New York Times last week.

Why would Vladimir Putin take such an aggressive tone in parts of a piece supposedly addressed to Americans and supposedly explaining his views on Syria and, more largely, U.S. foreign policy? Suddenly I realized: because he’s not really writing to America. That’s not who he’s talking to. He chose as a venue a major American newspaper, but he’s writing to the world. He is telling the world he knows how to correct America, tell it off, criticize it for its conceit. And he does it right to their faces, not in a Moscow interview or a St. Petersburg speech. He is rubbing America’s nose in it for the delectation of its friends, occasional friends, foes and occasional foes. He wasn’t writing to us at all. He’s attempting to show the world he’s its reliable voice, its real leader, not those other guys. Would he have done this in the past? No. A truly historic level of foreign policy incompetence on the part of the White House got us to this point.

She's definitely got the last sentence right in so many ways.

Labels: American exceptionalism, Barack Hussein Obama, incompetent, Vladimir Putin

Israelis not so dumb after all

Israelis are figuring out the truth about their finance minister, Yair Lapid.

Seventy-eight percent of the population disapproves of Yair Lapid's performance as Finance Minister, a Panels Politics poll for the Knesset Channel found on Monday.

Asked to grade him in the task of selecting a new Bank of Israel governor, 53% said he performed badly, 33% gave medium marks, 8% rated the performance good, while a mere 1% thought it was very good.

The poll may also dampen Lapid's ambitions towards the premiership; 82% of respondents said he was not fit for the position, versus only 12% who did. Even Among Yesh Atid voters, 54% said he was not keeping his promises, and 43% said they would not vote for the party again.

Reminds me of Amir 'Comrade' Peretz as 'defense minister.'

Hopefully the consequences from Lapid won't be as bad as the consequences from Peretz were.

Labels: Amir Peretz, incompetent, Yair Lapid

Another place where incompetence is no disqualifier

I wrote a post about Chuck Hagel which I titled "Only in America: Incompetence is no disqualifier."

As we get closer to Prime Minister Netanyahu forming a cabinet, we must remember that there is another country in which incompetence is no disqualifier from holding a ministry.

For those who have been lucky enough to get the image of Israel's then-'defense minister' looking through covered binoculars out of their mind over the last six years, the original story is here.

Labels: Amir Peretz, incompetent

Janet Incompetanto takes a day off

I didn't know that America's airports closed for Yom Kippur (as Israel's do). If America's airports don't close on Yom Kippur, I'd like to know what day TSA is closed so that I know what day not to fly. On the other hand, maybe it doesn't make a difference anyway given how incompetent they are.

There's more to this interview too. Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

She also says 'we won't stop all the attacks.' Funny. The Israelis don't approach airport security that way.

The system is working? Incompetent. Simply incompetent.

Labels: Department of Homeland Security, incompetent, TSA