That appears to be the White House’s defense of President Obama’s argument yesterday that the January killings at a Jewish grocery were “random.”
From today’s White House press briefing:
That the killers in Paris had specifically targeted Jews isn’t a matter of interpretation or commonsense, it’s what one of the attackers said.
The State Department said it didn’t want to speak for the French government. Well:
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/565233915313414144
Rosenberg, of Tablet, points out that the Obama administration has at times said the attack was targeted at Jews and argues this is just a particularly insane instance of the administration’s refusing to back down after a rhetorical misstep.
But hey, who knows — one of the reasons why the White House (like the Bush White House) is delicate about referring to Islamic extremism is that it would offend some of our Muslim allies. Why not just show due deference to their anti-Semitism, too?
Update: Depends on your definition of “always” and “clear” I suppose:
We have always been clear that the attack on the kosher grocery store was an anti-semitic attack that took the lives of innocent people.
— State Department Spokesperson 2013-2025 (@statedeptspox_a) February 10, 2015