U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides drew widespread criticism for a tweet responding to the deaths of four Israelis in a Palestinian terror attack on Tuesday, as he appeared to equate them with the deaths of terrorists.
Four Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists in shootings in the community of Eli, in the center of Samaria (the northern West Bank). The Palestinian terror group Hamas claimed responsibility for the terror attacks.
The day before, Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian city of Jenin to arrest terror suspects. They came under attack and returned fire; seven Israeli soldiers were wounded. Five Palestinians died, including a 15-year-old.
Nides responded by mourning the loss of life on both sides, without acknowledging that in both cases, Palestinian terrorists had been the aggressors, endangering Palestinian civilians and targeting Israeli ones.
Deeply concerned about the civilian deaths and injuries that have occurred in the West Bank these past 48 hours, including that of minors. Praying for the families as they mourn the loss of loved ones, or tend to those injured.
— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) June 20, 2023
Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog, indirectly criticized Nides’s tweet in his own reaction:
Deeply concerned about the civilian deaths and injuries that have occurred in the West Bank these past 48 hours, including that of minors. Praying for the families as they mourn the loss of loved ones, or tend to those injured.
— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) June 20, 2023
Apparently in response, Nides issued a clearer condemnation of the Palestinian terror attack afterwards:
I condemn in the strongest terms the senseless murder of four innocent Israelis today — my heart is with their grieving family members.
— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) June 20, 2023
Nides has been called the “arsonist-in-chief” for his role in backing protests against the proposed judicial reforms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which paralyzed the country earlier this spring.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.