Arriving
amid the bloodiest violence in years, Blinken focused censure on a Palestinian
gun spree outside a synagogue that put Israel on high alert but also cautioned
against any celebration or avenging of such bloodshed.
Seven people were shot dead in Friday's attack by an East
Jerusalem man who was himself killed by police. Lionized by many fellow
Palestinians, he had no known links to militant groups.
A day earlier, Israel carried out an unusually deep raid on
the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing 10 residents, most of
them gunmen. At least 35 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, have
died in violence surging since beginning 2023, medical officials say.
"It is the responsibility of everyone to take steps to
calm tensions rather than inflame them," Blinken told reporters after
landing in Tel Aviv.
He
said, “Friday's rampage was more than an attack on individuals. It was also an
attack on the universal act of practicing one's faith. We condemn it in the
strongest terms”.
"And we condemn all those who celebrate these and any
other acts of terrorism that take innocent lives, no matter who the victim is
or what they believe. Calls for vengeance against more innocent victims are not
the answer."
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Blinken met later on Monday, has called
for more citizens to carry guns as a precaution against such street attacks.
But he has also warned Israelis not to resort to vigilante violence.
Blinken is due to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on
Tuesday.
Palestinian officials said Israeli settlers had set fire on
Monday to two cars near the northern West Bank city of Nablus and thrown stones
at a house near Ramallah, following a similar attack on Sunday.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said
Israeli troops killed a 26-year-old man at a checkpoint. The army said troops
opened fire on the man's car after he rammed into one of them and tried to flee
an inspection.
The last round of US-sponsored talks on founding a
Palestinian state alongside Israel stalled in 2014.
Netanyahu's
new hardline government includes partners who oppose Palestinian statehood, and
control over the Palestinian territories is divided between Abbas, who favours
diplomacy, and rival Hamas Islamists, who are sworn to Israel's destruction.
After
meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken restated Washington's belief that a
two-state solution was the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
“As I said to the prime minister, anything that would move
us away from that vision is, in our judgment, detrimental to Israel's long-term
security and long-term identity as a Jewish and democratic state,” Blinken
said.
Recent
data indicates that public support for a two-state solution has reached a
historic low.
According to a survey published last week by the Palestinian
Center for Policy and Research, 33% of Palestinians and 34% of Israeli Jews say
they support it, a significant drop from data collected in 2020.
Two-thirds of Palestinians and 53% of Israeli Jews said they
opposed the two-state solution.
Blinken also addressed local political tensions, noting that
the vibrancy of Israel's civil society has been on full display of late, a
reference to large demonstrations against proposed changes in the judiciary
that protesters see as undermining judicial independence.
Standing alongside Netanyahu, Blinken said a strength of the
US and Israeli democracies was a recognition that building consensus for new
proposals is the most effective way to ensure they're embraced and that they
endure.
No comments:
Post a Comment