State Dept: "Palestinians are friends of the US"

This statement from State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki a month ago seems to have flown under the radar:

I think his – President Abbas is a friend of Secretary’s. The Palestinian people are friends of the United States.

Really?



The first half of the statement, that Abbas is a friend, is no less laughable. Maybe he is a friend of John Kerry, but he is hardly a friend of the US.

Even with the frosty relations betweeen Netanyahu and Obama, Bibi always, consistently emphasizes the friendship between the US and Israel.

I cannot find a single statement of Mahmoud Abbas' - even when he is with President Obama - saying anything nice about the US, except for thanking the US for giving him money.

Here I wish to thank the President for his continuous confirmation of the U.S. commitment to provide support to the Palestinian people, and to thank him and his administration for the support that has been provided during the past years -- various forms of support -- to the Palestinian treasury, to development projects, and to the UNRWA.

Even he doesn't claim that his people are friends of the US.

But the State Department does.

When Wikileaks first broke, I spent a bit of time going through the State Department cables. I was impressed with the hard work, accuracy and analysis of most of the diplomats working, day in and day out, in the Middle East, based on their frank dispatches. .

Unfortunately, when the leader of the State Department has his own agenda that is at odds with reality, all of that worthwhile effort goes down the drain.

There is no way a State Department analyst in the Middle East - no matter how Arabist - would say something this stupid. Even Mahmoud Abbas wouldn't say this for fear of losing popularity - which proves how insane the statement is to begin with.

But when politics interferes with clear-mindedness, politics wins.