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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Blocked Check of IDF Human Rights Record after Concerns Raised about Egypt
(Politico) Nahal Toosi - After State Department officials asked U.S. embassies in the Middle East to more carefully examine American military assistance to governments in the region in the wake of a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report critical of Egypt, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman rejected the idea, responding in October that he did "not believe we should extend the new [guidelines] to Israel at this time." "Israel is a democracy whose army does not engage in gross violations of human rights," Friedman wrote, adding that Israel "has a robust system of investigation and prosecution in the rare circumstance where misconduct occurs." Friedman wrote that he "disagrees with the assessment that the [State] Department should proactively address Israel based on GAO criticism of procedures in Egypt. We cannot and should not assume that GAO intended to apply the same criticism to Tel Aviv."