As Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, the State Department is discouraging diplomats working on Middle East issues from making public statements suggesting the U.S. wants to see less violence, according to internal emails viewed by HuffPost.
In messages circulated on Friday, State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.”
The revelation provides a stunning signal about the Biden administration’s reluctance to push for Israeli restraint as the close U.S. partner expands the offensive it launched after Hamas ― which rules Gaza ― attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7.
The funding certainly matters (even though it mostly goes back to US corporations), but this isn’t talking about the funding.
This is talking about saying useless words and watering down the influence of the US. It’s nice to say “deescalation” and “end of bloodshed”, but unless those words are likely to happen, it’s worse than nothing. It means when and if there IS ever a chance for peace, we’ll have spent years calling wolf.
This is simply “don’t say useless platitudes”.
I don’t think so, they’d be free to use them if they aligned with their goals.