State Department hypocrisy 101:

From today’s briefing:

QUESTION: And Israeli foreign minister actually again said that there’s no way to resolve the situation – sorry, crisis in the Middle East, but first resolve this Iranian problem. So since it’s – there’s a disagreement between Washington and Tel Aviv in this regard, has Secretary Clinton talked to her Israeli counterpart or addressed this disagreement?

MR. WOOD: Look, we’ve been very clear about this. What we need to – these are two separate issues, and we believe they can be dealt with simultaneously. You know, bringing about a peace in the Middle East, a two-state solution, is paramount for us. It’s in our national security interest. So is dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. And we can and must deal with these issues, these separate issues, very seriously.

And I don’t have anything more to offer to you other than our commitment, which we have reiterated to, you know, Israel and to others, is to this two-state solution. And we’re going to continue to work on this. The Secretary and Senator Mitchell are spending a lot of effort, trying to see what we can do to get this process going. And we’re also working with our Arab partners to try to reach this goal that we all have. But they’re two separate issues as far as we’re concerned.

Hillary Clinton yesterday:

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton said Israel could lose Arab support for countering the Iranian threat if Israel does not pursue peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

“For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can’t stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts,” the U.S. Secretary of State said Thursday at a House Appropriations Committee hearing. “They go hand in hand.”

But don’t expect any State Department reporter to ask about this…they’re too busy bashing Israel.