The Obama administration said Tuesday that it has asked both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take steps to stop the violence that has escalated over the last few weeks, but refused to take a position on which side was more to blame for the violence.
“The secretary spoke separately with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas over the weekend to express our deep concern over the recent wave of violence, and offer support for efforts that restore calm as soon as possible,” said State spokesman Mark Toner.
But when pressed on whether Secretary of State John Kerry is pushing Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take different steps, or whether either side was more at fault than the other, Toner had no comment. AP reporter Matt Lee asked Toner if the U.S. believes Israel is inciting violence or failing to condemn it, but Toner dodged the question.
“I think what we’ve been very clear about saying is that we want to see both sides take affirmative steps, affirmative actions, that reduce tensions in the region, and that we’ve seen, frankly, we’ve seen horrific attacks obviously today,” he said. That’s a reference to a Tuesday attack in which several Palestinian men killed Israelis by stabbing them — one ran his car into a bus stop, killing at least one Israeli.
“But we’ve seen also attacks on Palestinians that remain, the investigations remain ongoing, that have taken place now three or four weeks ago,” he said. “But overall we need to lower the temperature, we need to reduce these kinds of incitements.”
When pushed further to explain what steps Israel might take, Toner said one step would be to uphold the status quo at Temple Mount, a holy site for both Jews and Muslims. But he said asking whether the U.S. is “satisfied” with Israel’s position is the wrong question, and similarly dodged questions about whether the Palestinian Authority has to do more.
“Again, I think that both leaders need to convey that message, need to urge both sides to avoid inflammatory actions,” he said. He also said it’s less about blaming one side or the other, and more about stopping the “cycle of violence.”
While the Obama administration is putting the onus on both sides, many right-leaning pundits in the U.S. have blamed the Palestinian Authority for inciting violence against Jews in Israel, and said the administration is treating both sides as equivalent when the pressure should be on Abbas.
In Israel, Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet to deal with the rise in violence. Netanyahu put the blame on Abbas, and called on him to “stop lying and spreading” incitement to kill Jews, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Others have sided with the Palestinians, and have said they are being driven to violence because of anger over Israel’s airstrikes and actions in occupied territories. However, Israel contends those actions were retribution for attacks made against Jews.
