The State Dept Doesn't Know What a War Crime Is

As nine Israeli soldiers face punishment for raping Palestinian prisoners, the US State Department isn't sure if rape and torture count as war crimes

In Israel this week, protests have erupted after nine IDF soldiers were arrested for the rape and torture of Palestinian prisoners. No, they aren’t protesting the rape and torture, they’re protesting to free their soldiers. Israeli lawmakers then argued that rape is ‘legitimate’ in this case, and Israelis are tweeting things like this:

This is the state of Israel today.

So when journalist and former Useful Idiots guest Said Arikat asked State Dept spokesperson Vedant Patel if the US considered this a war crime, Patel’s response was this:

“Uh I’m not a legal expert, Said.”

And it’s true, without going to law school, how could he possibly know if rape and torture constituted a war crime?

And this isn’t all the madness you’ll get in this week’s Thursday Throwdown: this week Trump said maybe the most bigoted thing we’ve ever heard him say so far, CNN is boldly repeating Israeli lies, and an Olympics fan gets radicalized by Israelis on live TV.

It’s your midweek dose of media madness. Watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at it all.

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