Begging the increasingly salient question: devious realist payback or total fucking amateur hour?

Officials in Jerusalem are quietly scratching their heads in wonderment as to why the White House did not release an official statement condemning yesterday's tractor terrorist rampage here, the third attack of its kind in recent months... The attack with a Tractor came less than 18 hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly protested as "unhelpful" the planned bulldozing of more than 80 Jerusalem Arab homes built illegally upon Jewish land in Jerusalem. Usually, following any terrorist attack in Israel, the White House like clockwork immediately releases an official statement condemning the attack. But this time, no statement was forthcoming from either the White House or Clinton's State Department. Speaking to WND, a White House spokesman would only confirm he was not aware of any statement regarding the attack, but he would not speculate as to why the terrorism wasn't condemned.

And the verdict is... amateur hour. When these tools decide to use terrorist attacks as Teaching Moments they do it by hamfistedly inserting "cycle of violence" into their statements. In this case it just never occurred to them that the State Department is in the business of condemning terrorist attacks. Which is weird since we've all been assured in the most effusive terms that the Obama White House is preeminent in diplomatic nuance:

President Obama traveled to the State Department yesterday afternoon for a visit that was as rich in symbolism as in substance, underscoring his pledge to give top priority to diplomacy as he outlined an activist policy in the Middle East... Obama and Vice President Biden stood to one side as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced new special emissaries [such as] Mitchell for the Middle East... Just hours earlier, about 1,000 cheering civil service and Foreign Service employees had packed the building's lobby to welcome her on her first day at work... The new secretary... buoyed a workforce that often felt disdained and relegated to the back seat behind the military over the past eight years. "People were just elated that the president came here and said all the right things about strengthening diplomacy," one official said. "It is my privilege to come here and to pay tribute to all of you, the talented men and women of the State Department," Obama said. "I've given you an early gift, Hillary Clinton"

Do you think maybe it was Mitchell's job to remind them and it just slipped his mind? Or maybe they were still busy handing out Fulbrights to international anti-Israel celebrities. Or maybe the condemnation got lost among all the apologies Hillary's been issuing. Or maybe they just missed the memo. Could be anything really.

"As rich in symbolism as in substance." Honestly. Who the hell's writing this tripe? (h/t: CB)

References and previously after the jump...