State Department finds Israel a ‘driver of violence’

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State Department finds Israel a 'driver of violence' – Israel partisans furious, demand Tillerson resign

On the last page of the section the report states:

"Continued drivers of violence included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tactics that the Palestinians considered overly aggressive.

"The PA has taken significant steps during President Abbas' tenure (2005 to date) to ensure that official institutions in the West Bank under its control do not create or disseminate content that incites violence."

B'nai B'rith International issued a statement saying: "It is astonishing that State is parroting the false Palestinian narrative. If it were not released by the State Department, it would be easy to mistake the inflammatory and accusatory language as coming directly from the Palestinians."

The Zionist Organization of America blasted the report and demanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson resign.

ZOA President Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth Berney, Esq. issued a "monograph" calling the report "bigoted, biased, anti-Semitic, Israel-hating error-ridden."

The monograph also condemned what it claimed were "false and exaggerated claims of Israeli 'settler' violence against Palestinian Arabs, based on fabrications by the Soros-funded discredited anti-Israel NGO Yesh Din and the UN."

The report had stated that suspected Israeli settlers had conducted two arson attacks on homes of relatives of the Dawabsheh family, whose house had been set on fire by settlers in 2015 that "resulted in the deaths of three Palestinians."

The deaths were of an 18-month-old and his parents. Israeli media reported that Orthodox Jewish wedding-goers celebrated the killing, one of the dancers repeatedly stabbing a photo of the 18-month-old victim (video here).

In his monograph Klein praised Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam, co-chair of the Republican Israel caucus and one of Israel's most dependable cheerleaders, for writing a letter to Tillerson, asking the Secretary to correct the report's alleged "numerous mischaracterizations."

Klein had opposed Tillerson from the beginning, saying: "In general, people who have led oil companies are not that friendly to Israel. That concerns me."

Klein's concerns were shared by others, as reported by the Forward article "Trump's Pick of Exxon's Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State Spooks Jewish Groups."

The article reported that the groups "voiced general suspicion of oil executives, who they said often have longstanding relationships with Arab leaders, and are generally not attuned to Israeli interests."

'More anti-Israel than Obama'

A number of reports accuse Tillerson of being harder on Israel than Obama was.

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, who immigrated to Israel and lives in the Golan Heights, writes in Breaking Israel News that the new report used " language even more anti-Israel than was used in last year's report."

Jordan Schachtel, who previously worked for The Israel Project, reports in Conservative Review: "Rex Tillerson's State Department added blistering anti-Israel language to this year's 'Country Reports on Terrorism,' adopting a tone not seen even during the hostile Obama era."

According to Schachtel: "Last year's report under Obama said the Palestinians argued that terrorism is sometimes caused by frustration over 'occupation.' But that report was much less accusatory because it makes clear that the position is reflecting the views of Palestinian officials, and not the U.S. government."

An earlier article by Schachtel complained that "The secretary of state has been perhaps the most hostile Trump cabinet member to the Jewish state."

Schachtel reported that during a conversation with reporters, Tillerson had "refused to recognize that the holiest site in Jerusalem is part of Israel. The Western Wall is 'in Jerusalem,' Tillerson told reporters, stating the obvious geographic fact, but refusing to note Israel's sovereignty over it."

Schachtel writes that Tillerson is "part of a contingent that is advising President Trump not to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem."

Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster had also refused to answer questions about Jerusalem, commenting, "That's a policy decision." Press Secretary Sean Spicer would also not say that Jerusalem's Western Wall is in Israel. (Spicer has since resigned, and McMaster may also be on his way out.)

In an IsraelNationalNews column "The Jews did not start this, Mr. Tillerson," New York-based author Jack Engelhard writes: "President Trump needs to have a talk with Rex Tillerson. Tillerson's State Department has issued a report that blames Israel for...EVERYTHING.

"Nobody saw that coming. Well I sure didn't. Love Trump. Tillerson, not so much, even from the start."

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