In fact what they continually do is diddly squat.
"Since October 7, the Vice President has prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza. In this brief engagement, she reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities," said the Harris campaign in a statement after the rally.
It finally occurred to me that all of the current administration officials have made this phrase standard, almost a form of filibustering. I have heard it from Admiral Kirby, White House National Security Communications Advisor; Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to President Biden; Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Defense; Antony Blinken, Secretary of State.
I reviewed a transcript of Matt Miller, State Department Spokesman and former chief of staff for Senator Menendez who was found guilty of corruption, to see how often he says that he will continue to... do essentially nothing.
Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson
August 5, 2024
MR MILLER: Good afternoon, everyone. Good to be back after a little bit of time on the road. Start with some opening comments before I turn to questions"
The Secretary is also making clear through these engagements that the United States continues to see a ceasefire in Gaza as the crucial step to helping calm broader tensions"
Obviously, you've seen the Defense Department make certain announcements with regard to force posture. Deterrence is an important part of encouraging de-escalation, and so we will continue to take steps along that regard. Of course we prepare for the possibility of further conflict"
That being said, I want to just make it clear in answering the question that we don't think conflict is inevitable or should be inevitable, or that increased conflict is inevitable. We're going to continue to work to try to prevent it from happening"
Obviously, you saw that over the weekend we sent out a message to American citizens in Lebanon making clear that Lebanon is a Do Not Travel country, it's a Level 4 country, and we issued a security alert encouraging U.S. citizens who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available for them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first choice route. And we'll continue to monitor the situation and make assessments and take actions based on response to real-time events...
We do believe it's important to continue to defend Israel against attacks, whether they come from Iran or whether they come from Iran's proxies. We of course have conversations with our allies and partners about that, but I'm not going to detail those publicly"
So I wouldn't characterize them as stalled. I would characterize them the way we have said before, which is we have reached an agreement on the framework. That agreement still stands. Nothing that's happened over the course of the past week has done anything to erode the fundamental agreement on the framework to the ceasefire. That stands. But where we - also what's true is that we continue to have other areas where we need to bridge the differences between the two parties...
And so the message that we have consistently communicated to everyone in the region is we want to see a ceasefire; we think a ceasefire is in the interests of Israel, it's in the interests of the Israeli people, it's in the interests of the Palestinian people, it is in the interests of the broader region. So we are going to continue to use all of the diplomatic muscle, all of the influence that we can bring to bear, to push to get the ceasefire over the line"
I don't want to speak to the substance of negotiations other than to say that we continue to engage with our Qatari counterparts, our Egyptian counterparts"
...and I think I'll leave it at that other than to say the interlocutors - our interlocutors, Qatar and Egypt - are making clear to Hamas the same thing that we believe, which is that they need to continue to work to get to yes in an agreement"
QUESTION: Yeah, just to - on that, so the Secretary had calls with the Egyptians and the Qataris. What are they saying about, as has kind of come up, you've got one side - they've been - they've been, the interlocutors in these negotiations. One side has just assassinated the lead negotiator. Are they - are they willing to continue hosting these talks when it seems like one side is sort of - has just taken an action that seems to threaten their position as mediators?
MR MILLER: They are. And we continue to express our gratitude for the role that both Qatar and Egypt have played in trying to reach a resolution to this conflict and trying to reach a ceasefire that we eventually want to turn into an end to the war, and of course, beyond that, into broader peace and stability. Both of those two governments have put an extraordinary amount of work into reaching a ceasefire, as we have put an extraordinary amount of work"
QUESTION: And just lastly, have you heard indications from Hamas after Haniyeh's funeral now that they are going to come back to the table? Have they told the Qataris, the Egyptians that they do plan to continue engaging?
MR MILLER: I don't want to speak to the substance of negotiations other than to say that we continue to engage with our Qatari counterparts, our Egyptian counterparts. As I said, the Secretary had a call with the prime minister of Qatar earlier today who, of course, is one of the lead interlocutors, and I think I'll leave it at that other than to say the interlocutors - our interlocutors, Qatar and Egypt - are making clear to Hamas the same thing that we believe, which is that they need to continue to work to get to yes in an agreement"
I think you get the point, so I won't continue...
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