Mere Rhetoric: US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video]

Umm... what?

Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top American security envoy to the Palestinian Authority, has criticized Israel for its failure to help define a "security horizon" for the Palestinians and its refusal to ease conditions in the Palestinian Authority. In his reports to Washington, Dayton says forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have improved their performance in recent battles with Hamas. Dayton told the United States Congress and Department that the security force loyal to Abbas was demonstrating satisfactory progress and that he detected signs that Hamas was weakening. Among other things, Abbas loyalists had blocked a Hamas offensive despite a high number of fatalities in their ranks, and closed two tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt, Dayton said.

That's great. No, really it is. "Improving" performance is very important, and we'll be the first to line up to give Abbas's forces bevies of gold stars for doing better in their nascent non-civil war against Hamas forces. But you know what would be a great sign that Hamas is weakening? Something that would really give Israel an incentive to lighten up on the Palestinians? If they stopped effing firing effing rockets at Israeli schools and hospitals. That'd be super.

Here's a video of the aftermath of a deadly rocket attack from a couple days ago. Man killed in rocket attack on Sderot">Oshri Oz will never get the benefit of Abbas's forces "improved performance":

But no, seriously, this is all Israel's fault. Because of the occupation of Gaza, you see.

References:
* U.S. envoy to PA slams Israel for refusing to ease PA conditions [Ha'aretz]
* Deadly Qassam attack on the Israeli city of Sderot 3 [boni123 / YouTube]
* Man killed in rocket attack on Sderot [YNet]

Previously:
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans

About

Omri Ceren is a PhD student studying Rhetoric at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.
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