I know U.S. isn’t supporting Palestinian statehood, which is bad enough. I was hoping for a source about Blinken supposedly saying that doing so would cause global starvation. Doesn’t sound like something a diplomat would say, I haven’t seen it reported elsewhere, and on first pass doesn’t make any sense.

Thanks for identifying the source of the screenshot. I then found this article about a meeting between Arab American leaders and Blinken, and this full video of the interview we’re seeing a clip of.

Frankly, even if unintentional this is how misinformation gets spread.

Many people will only read the headline. Then if they want to know more it’s multiple steps to get closer to the source. If you watch the clip it’s just some guy. If you find the original video it’s Bilal Hammoud, with the Michigan Arab chamber of commerce.

And he’s paraphrasing what Blinken said in a private meeting. There isn’t a recording of the meeting itself. Assuming best of intentions, this guy is relaying his recollection of how he heard Blinken’s words, which is subject to miscommunication.

This guy claims Blinken said if Palestine is recognized, the U.S. will cut funding to the U.N. and if they do that, the U.N. may cut food aid programs that affect other parts of the world.

Even if what this guy said was accurate about Blinken, that’s bad enough. If Blinken said the U.S. will throw a tantrum and willingly cut funds to an unrelated organization, even knowing it could affect aid elsewhere, that’s shitty. But it’s weakly sourced, we’ve got one participant’s recollection, and don’t have greater context of the conversation.

Then we have this headline added which was never said during the interview, “Blinken threatens global starvation.” It all seems packaged to drive engagement.

Which is too bad, because the U.S. is in the wrong, and Israel. It hurts credibility to paint this cartoonish picture when the reality is plenty awful.

No, you don’t understand, they’re EVIL and must be planning to starve the world