Hey Obama, why doesn't the US condemn Israeli human rights abuses?

President Obama was attending a town hall meeting earlier today in Tampa, Florida, when a student asked him about Israeli human rights abuses, as Obama emphasized America's support for human rights in last night's State of the Union address.

Her question immediately garnered reaction from several members of the audience:

Last night in your State of the Union address, you spoke of America's support for human rights. Then, why have we not condemned Israel and Egypt's human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian people and yet we continue to support financially with billions of dollars coming from our tax dollars?

Obama of course completely dodged her question regarding human rights abuses by Israel or Egypt, and answered by discussing the region in a much more general framework. Although Obama did immediately tell the crowd to not drown out the student and to let the question stand, he said that he "makes no apologies" for the vigorous defence of Israel, while also stressing that the Palestinians have their rights too:

Israel is one of our strongest allies. It is a vibrant democracy. It shares links with us in all sorts of ways. It is critical for us, and I will never waver from, ensuring Israel's security and helping them secure themselves in what is a very hostile region. So I make no apologies for that. What is also true is that the plight of the Palestinians is something that we have to pay attention to because it is not good for our security and it is not good for Israel's security if you've got millions of individuals who feel hopeless, who don't have an opportunity to get an education or get a job or what have you.

Obama continued his cop-out by explaining that the peace process could be hampered by "inflammatory" or "knee-jerk" language that could alienate Israel and the Palestinians from negotiating:

And so we are working to strengthen the ability of both parties to sit down across the table and begin serious negotiations. And I think that it's important when we're talking about this issue to make sure that we don't just knee-jerk, use language that is inflammatory or in some fashion discourages the possibility of negotiation. We've got to recognize that both the Palestinian people and Israelis have legitimate aspirations and they can be best served if the United States is helping them understand each other as opposed to demonizing each other.

Whatever. Sorry, but there's nothing "knee-jerk" or "inflammatory" about addressing reality (warning: extremely graphic images).