{"id":492320,"date":"2021-05-10T12:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T16:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=492320"},"modified":"2021-05-10T12:35:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T16:35:48","slug":"state-department-walks-back-criticism-of-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-walks-back-criticism-of-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"State Department Walks Back Criticism of Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-department-walks-back-criticism-of-israel%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=492320&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.96837944664\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/\">Biden Administration<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">It is &#8216;critical for Israel&#8217; not to &#8216;exacerbate tensions or take us further away from peace,&#8217; said spokeswoman Jalina Porter<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"399\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/q14f7KGZ_400x400-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/q14f7KGZ_400x400.jpg 399w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/q14f7KGZ_400x400-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/q14f7KGZ_400x400-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/q14f7KGZ_400x400-146x146.jpg 146w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tJalina Porter \/ Twitter\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/adam-kredo\/\" title=\"Posts by Adam Kredo\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Adam Kredo<\/a> \u2022 May 10, 2021 12:30 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"104.38066616579\">\n<p>The State Department walked back comments from controversy-prone deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter, who last week singled out Israel for criticism and blamed the Jewish State for inflaming tensions with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>The State Department distanced itself Friday from Porter&#8217;s remarks, noting that &#8220;we have consistently called on both Israel and the Palestinians to avoid unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and make it more difficult to preserve the viability of a two-state solution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The dust-up comes after Porter was asked at a press briefing about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/btselem-settlers-set-fire-to-palestinians-fields-threw-rocks-at-them\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unverified<\/a> and later discredited reports claiming Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmlands. Porter said Wednesday that it is &#8220;critical for Israel to refrain from any unilateral steps that certainly would exacerbate tensions or take us further away from peace&#8221;\u2014a statement that seemed to break with longstanding U.S. policy calling on all sides in the conflict to move toward peace.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether the State Department believes the Palestinians should refrain from actions that hinder peace, Porter dug in. &#8220;My response [to the question] is correct as it stands,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Porter&#8217;s public misstep and the State Department&#8217;s ensuing clarification are the latest controversy to hit the spokeswoman, who came under intense criticism earlier this year for a slate of social media postings attacking American police officers. Critics said her anti-cop views are at odds with the State Department&#8217;s traditional mission of advancing America&#8217;s image and countering global extremism.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear if Israelis played any role in last week&#8217;s violence.<\/p>\n<p>Just a day after Porter criticized the Israelis for setting the fires, Israeli groups raised questions about the authenticity of the original reports. The anti-Israel advocacy group B&#8217;Tselem initially claimed Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian lands and threw rocks at Palestinians. The group quickly walked back these accusations in a social media posting and is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/arab-israeli-conflict\/settlers-to-sue-btselem-for-alleging-they-set-palestinian-fields-ablaze-667300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">now facing a lawsuit<\/a> from an Israeli group alleging B&#8217;Tselem slandered the region&#8217;s inhabitants by publishing inflammatory claims about them.<\/p>\n<p>Since that incident, tensions have been running high in Israel, as Palestinian rioters in Jerusalem clash with police and attack Jews in the city as part of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/breaking-news\/four-injured-in-brawl-between-jews-and-arabs-outside-hebrew-u-667693\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">escalating<\/a> anti-Israel protest movement.<\/p>\n<p>Porter has been the subject of controversy since she was first hired for the State Department&#8217;s number two communications job. Days after her appointment in January, the <em>Washington<\/em>&nbsp;<i>Free Beacon<\/i> reported on a 2016 Facebook post in which Porter wrote, &#8220;The largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S. cops. Not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else.&#8221; Her comments appear to be in reference to video footage <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/20\/us\/video-released-in-terence-crutchers-killing-by-tulsa-police.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a> that day of an unarmed black man being shot by police officers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<p>In response to questions from multiple media outlets, Porter claimed the comments were a one-off mistake that didn&#8217;t reflect her views.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Comments I made five years ago on my personal Facebook account as a private citizen were in response to the uncomfortable\u2014and deeply painful\u2014truth of race-based violence in America that has continued ever since,&#8221;&nbsp;she said in a statement. &#8220;The pain I expressed was real. Nevertheless, I should&#8217;ve chosen words that were less passionate and spur of the moment, as well as more constructive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after Porter issued that statement, the&nbsp;<i>Free Beacon<\/i> exposed several more social media postings that criticized the police.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so tired of terrorist cops,&#8221; she wrote in an Aug. 24 <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/unnamed.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last May, Porter <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/unnamed-3.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retweeted<\/a> a message that likened police brutality in the United States to gross human rights abuses overseas\u2014and condemned the foreign policy community for its failure to speak out. &#8220;Crickets,&#8221; she wrote in response to a tweet claiming that white Americans involved in U.S. diplomacy &#8220;are miiiiiighty quiet while our own country burns and our police commit the same atrocities we condemn overseas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden Administration It is &#8216;critical for Israel&#8217; not to &#8216;exacerbate tensions or take us further away from peace,&#8217; said spokeswoman Jalina Porter  Jalina Porter \/ Twitter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893632,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}