Press Secretary Jen Psaki was non-committal during a Monday press briefing when asked about recent anti-Israel comments by AOC and Bernie Sanders, refusing to either condone or condemn them.
A voice off-screen asks Psaki, "You also have Democrats in the party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling Israel an 'apartheid state', Sen. Bernie Sanders saying that potentially, this should lead the US to re-evaluate foreign assistance."
Sanders on Sunday actually tweeted that he considered US foreign aid to Israel to be "illegal".
"What's the White House's message to those in the President's party on this?"
Psaki responded:
"I will say if we ... our message is: sometimes you have to step back from politics for a moment; it's not easy to do. And we recognize and agree that watching the lives lost of these Palestinian children, of these families, the fear you see in the eyes of the Israeli people, it is heartbreaking."
"We want to bring an end to the violence; we want to de-escalate the situation on the ground. The role we feel we can do that through, the most effective way we feel we can do that is through quiet and intensive diplomacy. "
"And, that is what our focus is on at this point in time, but we share an objective of de-escalating the circumstances on the ground. We share a view that a two-state solution is the only way to bring a lasting end to the violence."
At another point in the press conference, another reporter asked a similar question, whether there were any "war crimes", suggesting that there may be "war crimes on both sides," and Psaki replied:
When asked if Biden thinks there are war crimes being committed in the Middle East, Psaki says: "We're not going to be making an assessment of that from here. Our objective is on taking every step we can to reduce the violence..." pic.twitter.com/VsTQhh0OwS
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 17, 2021
"We're not going to be making an assessment on that from here. Our objective is on taking every step we can to reduce the violence, to de-escalate the situation on the ground, to save lives, to ensure that we are bringing some stability back on the ground."
"Just to follow up, is the president at all concerned about, just the number of civilians that are being killed?" continued the reporter.
Psaki responded in much the same manner:
"Well, I would say that in the readouts that we put out this weekend, we included and, as I noted a little bit earlier in the briefing, his concerns about the lives lost."
"Every life lost is a tragedy, and certainly that's why we are eager to de-escalate the violence on the ground, bring an end to the conflict, so that more lives can be saved."
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