I found this phrase to be a bit vague The Israeli government attempted to deny responsibility It seems that if the government was attempting to deny responsiblity then they were denying responsiblity so the sentence should simply read The Israeli government denied responsiblity If however the parts of the Israeli government were denying responsiblity and parts weren t then this could be characterized as an attempt to deny responsibility as the article says at present This would require a little clarification though and I doubt its the case Infernallek