Who started the latest round of violence in the Middle East? This pretty remarkable exchange between the host and a reporter on CNN‘s Piers Morgan Tonight show (11/15/12) tells us that no one can really say for sure, but the U.S government will tell you what they think:

MORGAN: Like with all these things in that region, apportioning blame from afar is a very precarious business because each side blames the other for the reasons leading up to these incidents. What is your sense of how this is playing out in the international stage? FRED PLEITGEN: It’s very difficult to assess who’s at fault for this. You’re absolutely right. I mean, one of the things that is almost obsolete is to try to lay blame on anyone or to say who actually started any of this. But it certainly seems to be the case that, of course, the United States is saying that all of this is square on the shoulders of Hamas, because of the escalations that have been happening from Gaza, especially the rocket attacks, but also attacks with anti-tank weapons on Israeli patrols in the past couple of weeks that have been ratcheted up.

If a reporter can’t answer that question with anything but “Here’s what the United States is saying,” it might be be easier to get a government spokesperson to do just that.

And, sure enough, Morgan’s next guest was…Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N.

After that came CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria, who reiterated his previously stated defense of Israel’s actions:

First, one has to say, Piers, as you did, the Israelis are justified in doing something when all these rockets are being fired at them. So there’s no question that it’s justified.

The show wasn’t entirely one-sided. Before one commercial break, there was a photo of a protest in New York against the Israeli attacks.