A United States spokesman Tuesday tried to soften increasing harsh question from reporters covering the “diplomatic process” that is trying to bring the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table with Israel. One reported charged that while the Bush Administration actually had them sitting down talking to each other. You guys can’t even get that far.” Kelly replied, “Give us a chance.”
Another reporter attacked Kelly for saying only that the Obama administration was “dismayed” at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s refusal to clamp a building freeze on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. “You can’t come up with anything stronger than ‘dismaying’?” asked the reporter. “I mean, this flies in the face of everything you’ve been talking about for months and months and months. You can’t offer a condemnation of it or anything like that?”
While the other journalists laughed at the comments, Kelly replied, “I have said what I have said.”