To: combjelly who wrote (863662 ) 6/9/2015 12:50:27 PM From: joseffy 1 RecommendationRecommended By FJB
Respond to of 1576012 Obama Admin Defends Meeting with Group That 'Slanders' Israel "Another blow to Israeli ........................................................................................................................ Truth Revolt ^ | 6/8/15 | Bradford Thomas The Obama administration defended a recent meeting between White House and State Department officials and "Breaking the Silence," an activist group Israel's justice minister has condemned for "slander[ing] the State of Israel." Breaking the Silence, which according to NGO-Monitor gets its funding from European sources, issued a report last month containing what it says are testimonies of Israel's use of indiscriminate force against Palestinian civilians from anonymous IDF soldiers who served during last summer's Israel-Hamas conflict. Though the IDF said it would investigate the report, it has raised significant questions about its credibility, some Israeli soldiers labeling it "a total lie" and Israel's top diplomat accusing the group of "working against Israel from within." In what Haaretz calls two "first of its kind" meetings, White House and State Department officials met with Breaking the Silence to discuss its accusations of Israel's human rights violations against Palestinians. The meetings came the same week that Israel asked the Swiss government to stop funding the group. In a statement to Haaretz, an unnamed State Department official defended the meeting with the anti-Israel group. "Officers from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor met with a representative from the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence,” said the official. "The State Department regularly meets with a broad array of political and civil society organizations from various countries worldwide." "U.S. Government officials met with Breaking the Silence, as we routinely meet with a range of actors from official and non-official international groups, including from civil society,” an unnamed Obama administration official told Haaretz. According to Foundation for Middle East Peace president Matt Duss, fact that the Obama administration held two meetings with the group indicates that it has an open door to the administration . Haaretz reports: Duss told Haaretz that during the meetings, Breaking the Silence presented its recent report last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip. Obama administration officials reacted with a great deal of interest, Duss said, asking “many questions about the vetting process of the witnesses, the testimonies and the fact-checking.” According to Duss, the fact that both White House staff and the State Department held meetings with Breaking the Silence shows that the organization has an open door to the administration . The founder of the pro-Israel group NGO-Monitor, Gerald Steinberg, told TheBlaze Sunday that the administration giving credibility to Breaking the Silence "is another blow to Israeli perceptions of the U.S." "The rhetoric of support from President Obama and other officials is undermined when they give credence to these fringe groups that tour the world on European money to demonize Israel and attack Israeli democracy," said Steinberg.