Richard Stengel, under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the U.S. Department of State, took to Twitter on Saturday night and appeared to take sides in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by tweeting out his support for Gaza.
PJ Media reported:
Stegel, appointed to his post at the State Department by President Obama last year and confirmed by a 90-8 vote along party lines in April, used his personal Twitter account to call for an investigation into Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The former managing editor of Time prefaced the tweet with the State Department’s Twitter handle and ended it with the hashtag #UnitedForGaza, indicating his solidarity with the Palestinians.
Not surprisingly, many Twitter uses were offended by the hashtag.
@stengel @StateDept I don't think this is explicit enough, why not go full throttle and simply go all out by saying "#IStandWithHamas" .#SMH
— Mr. Aye Dee (@MrAyeDee) July 20, 2014
Stengel later explained his tweet had the wrong hashtag.
That’s comforting.