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Wednesday, 4 June 2025
Former top US spokesman who defended Israel now says it 'without doubt' committed war crimes.
Matthew Miller was a prominent defender of US policy on Israel. (AP: Nathan Howard)
In short:
Former
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said he did not believe
Israel was carrying out a genocide, but it did commit war crimes while
he was part of the Biden administration.
He did not say so at the time because his job was to speak on behalf of the US government, he said.
He
also said the US "should have been tougher" on Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and put him under more pressure to accept a ceasefire
proposal.
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A
prominent Biden administration spokesperson who defended Israel from
allegations of war crimes now says Israel has "without a doubt"
committed war crimes in Gaza.
Matthew
Miller, who was the State Department's top spokesperson until early
this year, sparred with journalists who raised the allegations or
questioned American foreign policy in the Middle East.
He
has now appeared on a Sky News UK podcast, conceding he believes Israel
was responsible for war crimes while he was working in the
administration.
Asked if Israel
was committing genocide, Mr Miller said: "I don't think it's a
genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has
committed war crimes."
When
interviewer Mark Stone said to him: "You wouldn't have said that from
the [State Department press briefing] podium," Mr Miller said: "Yeah,
look, because when you're at the podium, you're not expressing your
personal opinion. You're expressing the conclusions of the United States
government."
Mr
Miller was the public face of the State Department during the last two
years of Joe Biden's presidency, holding regular press conferences in
Washington. At times, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside his
home.
Those
warrants, which remain in force, accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against
humanity and using starvation as a method of warfare.
The
Trump administration has since imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors and
accused the court of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting
America and our close ally Israel".
The International Court of Justice is separately hearing a genocide case against Israel, which has been brought by South Africa.
Israel and its
leaders deny all allegations and argue the country is acting in
legitimate self-defence after Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack, and
that its military takes steps to avoid harming civilians, which Hamas
uses as "human shields" and steals aid from.
Mr
Miller said it was an "open question" whether the Israeli government
had pursued a policy to commit war crimes or recklessly abetted them.
But it was "almost certainly not an open question" that Israeli soldiers
had carried them out, he said.
"And
the way you judge a democracy is whether they hold those people
accountable," he said. "We have not yet seen them hold sufficient
numbers of the military accountable."
Mr
Miller said the thing "that I will always ask questions of myself
about" is whether there was more the White House could have done to
pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire sooner.
"I think at times there probably was," he said.
The
Biden administration proposed a ceasefire deal last May, which was
implemented in January, but broken when Israel resumed air strikes in
Gaza in March.
"Now, it's
difficult — Israel was not the only … party to this negotiation. You saw
Hamas repeatedly move the goalposts," he said.
"But you saw Netanyahu move the goalposts as well, and I do think there were times when we should have been tougher on him."
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