U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry angrily condemned Tuesday’s deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue and demanded that the Palestinian leadership take immediate steps to end incitement to violence as Israeli-Palestinian tensions soared.
“This morning in Jerusalem, Palestinians attacked Jews who were praying in a synagogue,” Kerry said shortly after Israeli authorities reported that two Palestinians had stormed the synagogue, attacking worshippers with knives, axes and guns, and killed four people before being killed in a shootout with police. Kerry commented after speaking by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed to “respond harshly” to the attack.
“Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue,” Kerry said, his voice quavering. “They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder. I call on Palestinians at every single level of leadership to condemn this in the most powerful terms. This violence has no place anywhere, particularly after the discussion that we just had the other day in Amman.”
Last week, Kerry traveled to the Jordanian capital and won commitments from Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II, who serves as the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, to reduce tensions.
Kerry, who spoke Tuesday before meeting in London with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, noted that Israel had acted to calm the situation by easing age restrictions on Muslim worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque. He did not mention any steps taken by the Palestinians despite what had been described in Amman as a pledge from Abbas to rein in incitement.
“To have this kind of act, which is a pure result of incitement, of calls for ‘days of rage,’ of just irresponsibility, is unacceptable,” Kerry said. “The Palestinian leadership must condemn this and they must begin to take serious steps to restrain any kind of incitement … and exhibit the kind of leadership that is necessary to put this region on a different path. This simply has no place in human behavior and we need to hear from leaders who are going to lead their people to a different place.”
(AP)
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6 Responses
is israel still negotiating with hamas?
It won’t be long before we hear obama saying “our thoughts and prayers are with the families”. You know what O? Save your precious breath. We’re not interested in what you have to say. Actions speak louder than your empty words so do something about it.
I’m still waiting for Jen Psaki to come out and tell Israel to keep calm and not to retaliate.
Gee isn’t that great. When isreal states they are building homes. The state department Kerry and our current tenant in the White House threaten them. Let’s see some back bone here. These where Americans
Secy Kerry Pres Obama, and others you are the ones that are responsible for the blood shed- forget the 2 state solution.
Rabbi Kahane said need to remove them YES AND IT IS 20 YEARS TOO LATE