LEE: You’re not telling us anything about... when the Turks come out, when the leaders of Turkey come out and say that Israel is engaged in acts of terrorism and you refuse to say that you don’t agree with that... maybe you do agree with that, that’s being silent.
NULAND: Matt, we have made a decision that we need to engage in our diplomatic work diplomatically, we have been very clear on where we stand on this. Which is that we don’t practice diplomacy from the podium. We have been very clear that Israel has the right of self-defense. Very clear that rockets continue to be fired and land on Israel. We’ve been very clear that we are working to get this conflict de-escalated. We have been very clear about our concern for the civilians and innocents on both sides who are getting caught in this...
LEE: And yet you won’t stick up for your ally Israel when the Turks, another one of your allies, say that they are engaged in terrorism in Gaza.
NULAND: We have been extremely clear about our concern for Israel security and the fact that Israel has the right to self-defense but I am not going to go further than that.
LEE: Why can’t you say that you don’t agree with the Turks?
NULAND: Because I am not going to get into a public spitting match with allies on either side. We’re just not going to do that, okay?
LEE: You think that’s worse, a public spitting match between one of your allies is worse than hundreds of people dying every day.
NULAND: I don’t understand the question here. There is not a question here, you’re just looking for a fight, let’s go, say it say it.
LEE: No no no, the fight is already, whats going on over there. And you guys by refusing saying anything about what you’re going trying to do by refusing to say whether you agree or disagree with comments that are being made by your allies or others that makes things worse, not better.
NULAND: We of course agree that rhetorical attacks against Israel are not helpful at this moment. Is that what you are looking for Matt?
LEE: Yes
NULAND: Thank you
He and Zero are on the phone constantly.
If Turkey is publicly calling Israeli reprisals “terrorism,’ you can be sure that in his private chats with Erdogan, Zero is doing the same thing.
Thank you for posting the transcript. Much appreciated.