|
Foggy Bottom Unsure Why Palestinians Terrorists Kill Israelis
 [Free Beacon] Officials in the Trump administration’s State Department are standing by a recent report criticized by Congress that blamed Israel for terror attacks and claimed Palestinians rarely incite violence, telling the Washington Free Beacon that it remains unclear why terrorists engage in violent acts.Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, criticized the State Department Thursday for releasing a report portraying Israel as the culprit in terrorism and downplaying Palestinian incitement of violent acts against the Jewish state, the Free Beacon first reported. Roskam demanded the State Department alter its report to bring it more in line with what he believes are the facts on the ground--that Palestinian leaders routinely incite violence against Israel, which has been forced to defend itself against a growing wave of terror attacks on Jewish citizens. A State Department official, speaking on background, defended the report's conclusions and said that it cannot precisely pinpoint the motivations behind Palestinian terror attacks on Israel. "We recognize that in any community, a combination of risk factors can come together to create a higher risk of radicalization to violence," the official said. "There is no one single pathway to violence--each individual's path to terrorism is personalized, with certain commonalities. Therefore, it is difficult to pinpoint precisely what the sources of radicalization to violence are. What could drive someone to violence in one instance could vary significantly with someone else who is similarly situated." The State Department's response prompted a fierce backlash among U.S. officials and Trump administration insiders, who said the State Department under the leadership of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has gone rogue and is out of line with the White House's position on a range of sensitive diplomatic issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. Posted by: Besoeker 2017-07-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=493300 |