The State Department has put on leave an official who has reportedly been a local leader in the white supremacist movement over the last several years, Politico reported Thursday. Matthew Q. Gebert, who was hired in 2013 and works as a foreign affairs officer in the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources in Washington, hosted white…
A State Department official has been leading a secret online life as a white nationalist leader and writer, the Southern Poverty Law Center claimed in an investigation. Matthew Q. Gebert works as a foreign affairs officer in the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources in Washington. But over the past few years, according to the SPLC,…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration ended the policy of referring to the West Bank and the Golan Heights as “occupied” by Israel. The State Department’s annual report on global human rights issues, issued Wednesday, drops the “occupied” language from passages on the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. It refers to the Golan Heights…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — More than a thousand lay and clergy leaders across a range of faiths signed a petition urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to name an anti-Semitism monitor. “Around the world, violent and even lethal attacks have been made on Jews and Jewish institutions; physical harassment of Jews who wear a kippah in…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Senate handily confirmed CIA director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state as reports said one of his first tours in the job would be to Israel. The 57-42 vote on Thursday was stronger than expected for Pompeo. Democrats had robustly opposed his nomination over remarks Pompeo made as a Kansas…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A State Department spokeswoman said combating anti-Semitism remains a “priority” for the Trump administration, but would not say if the Trump administration would fill the congressionally mandated job of an anti-Semitism monitor. “The position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism is currently unfilled, but the Office of International Religious Freedom…
(JTA) — The position of anti-Semitism monitor has not been filled by President Trump more than a year after it was vacated. In addition, the State Department’s office to monitor and combat anti-Semitism has been unstaffed since July 1. A State Department official in January told JTA that the Trump administration considers the position of…
Steve Goldstein, the State Department’s undersecretary for public affairs and public diplomacy, emerged in recent months as Rex Tillerson’s chief spokesperson. On Tuesday, shortly after news broke about Tillerson’s firing, it was Goldstein who spoke to the press, relaying the ousted secretary’s feelings. “The secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of…
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