Jake Tapper conducted a tough interview on Monday with Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tapper grilled Regev about the beating of Palestinian-American teenager Tariq Khdeir by Israeli police. Khdeir is a cousin of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian boy who was recently found brutally murdered. Three Israeli teens have reportedly confessed to the murder. That killing followed the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers.
After Regev condemned the beating of Tariq Khdeir, Tapper said, "Palestinians say this happens all the time. The only difference is that this kid is American."
"I beg to disagree," Regev replied, saying that Israel was a democracy that provided for redress for all citizens.
"As you know, there are a lot of human rights groups that just disagree with your assessment," Tapper said. He noted studies that showed that under 10 percent of attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers were ever prosecuted.
Regev responded that the judiciary in Israel was "fiercely independent," adding, "I know the system works...Palestinians regularly go to Israeli courts."
Tapper then quoted from an editorial by the newspaper Haaretz, which said that Israel needed to undergo a "cultural revolution," and that too many Israelis were part of "a vengeful, vindictive Jewish tribe whose license to perpetrate horrors is based on the horrors that were done to it."
"There are a lot of Israelis, especially on the left, who think this didn't happen in a vacuum, [that] this is part of the culture of Israel, hostility towards Arabs, nurtured by Israeli politicians," Tapper said.
"I don't think that's true," Regev said. "Everyone...has totally condemned that murder...Israel stands thoroughly against this."