CNN’s Amanpour to Blinken: ‘Are You Prepared to Say that War Crimes Have Been Committed by Israel?’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Amanpour: “I’m not going to ask you the genocide question because I‘ve heard you answer it. You don‘t believe that that‘s what Israel is doing. Although the leading us-Israeli scholar on genocide and Holocaust studies has told me, he believes after a year of studying this that it does fit that description. But I‘m going to ask you about your own officials here in the State Department. You know, more than a dozen have resigned, and they‘re very, very deeply concerned that the actual American laws governing the use of military aid have not been followed. And furthermore, I‘m going to ask you about the Israelis themselves who talk about war crimes are moshe yaalon, the former defense secretary for Netanyahu, likud, not a bleeding heart, liberal ethnic cleansing and war crimes are taking part. And he‘s doubled down on that. Are you prepared to say that war crimes have been committed by Israel?”

Blinken: “Can‘t speak to individual instances. I can say, obviously we‘ve had concerns more than concerns about the way Israel has conducted itself. Understanding, first of all, that this is a unique environment, one we haven‘t really seen before, one where you have a population that‘s trapped inside of Gaza and virtually every other situation in the world, people are able to get out of harm‘s way. They become refugees in a neighboring country. That‘s not a good thing, but it‘s better than being caught in the middle of this kind of maelstrom. Second, uniquely, you have an enemy that intentionally embeds itself within the civilian population in and under apartments, in and under schools, mosques, hospitals. That does not in any way absolve Israel of the responsibility, the obligation to conduct itself according to international law. But it makes it incredibly. It makes it much more challenging. So we look at this very, very carefully. Israel looks at this very, very carefully. The second thing I want to say is this I more than respect, I deeply value the fact that we have people in this department and in our system who have different views and speak up, speak out. We have something called a dissent channel in the State Department where people object to a policy we‘re pursuing. They can send me a note, a memo, a detailed brief, and and I see it, I read it, I respond to it. And I‘ve gotten, I don‘t know, a couple of dozen when it comes to Gaza, as well as other issues. That is a cherished tradition in this department. And I wanted to make sure that people feel—“