LONDON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has identified three Americans among those killed in an attack Tuesday at a synagogue in Israel.
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki named the three U.S. citizens as Mosheh Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine.
Secretary of State John Kerry, traveling in London, condemned the attack on “innocent people who had come to worship.”
Kerry 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,” he 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 spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express condolences and offer support. Following a meeting in London with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Kerry spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and expressed support for his statement condemning the attacks while urging him to do everything possible to de-escalate tension. He agreed to stay in close touch with both leaders.
Last week, Kerry had traveled to the Jordanian capital and won commitments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II, who serves as the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, to reduce tensions.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Some things never change, it would seem.
The impetus for this song was TV footage from the war of hate circa early 1980’s.
So, killing one another over the same GOD, ain’t belief grand.
It is however, not a substitute for understanding.
Soldier’s Blessing © 2010 Rainbowind BMI
Chorus
“If they could rise to speak again
Tellin’ what’s said upon meetin’ the maker
One GOD is all that’s ever been
Beyond the flag
An’ the coffin it’s drapin’
Given one more breath to use
Would it be to kill
Or share the message
Each soldiers blessed”
Not to put too fine a point on it but, as noted, it seems some things never change: http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/01/18/sharon-and-hamas/
"…Hamas is considered one of Israel’s greatest threats, but the Islamic terrorist organization found its beginnings in the misguided Israeli effort to encourage the rise of a religious alternative that would undermine the popularity of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasir Arafat.
The strategy resulted in the birth of Hamas which rose from these Islamic roots. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a member of the government when the policy was developed in the late 1970s. Although Sharon and his Likud (formerly Herut Party) government colleagues could not anticipate that the Islamic leaders they backed would eventually evolve into Hamas and suicide bombings, the two have benefited from each others extremism over the years.
The Likud strategy to promote an Islamic alternative evolved in response to Arafat’s transformation from a revolutionary leader to the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people. Arafat was anointed as the only person who could negotiate for the return of the Occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem at the Rabat Arab Summit in October 1974…"
This quote and reaction is from the first story on this, which has vanished down the news queue.
Huh? The attackers were killed by police. Why are police going to arrest other people before there has been time for an investigation?
Did we arrest the families of the Boston Marathon Bombers? Are the parents and siblings of the Pennsylvania Survivalist Sniper in jail? Did we demolish the home of Timothy McVeigh’s folks?
Continuous provocation by Likudniks against occupied people is inevitably going to result in violence. The Likudniks know this, and welcome it with hypocritical expressions of shock and grief, and use it as an excuse for more oppression.
The current Israeli leadership is getting just what it wants and expects–death of innocent Israeli [On Edit: in this case, Americans and British] citizens at the hands of ghettoized Palestinians pushed past the breaking point.
The only time we ‘thought’ we faced any similar problem is when we interned the Japanese Americans.
Dual passport rabbi’s or right of return freeloaders?
Remind us, how many thousands of Palestinians in the last Mwere slaughtered in the most recent 'Mowing the Grass ’ zionist war? Violence begets violence, bibi!
Interesting truth on the ground:
http://972mag.com/welcome-to-netanyahus-resolution-to-the-conflict/98940/
ISRAEL is THE only dEmocRAcy IN THE MiddLE East SO theY have The MORAL authORITY TO disCriminate AGAINSt theIR owN ciTIzens Be theY ArabS Or MuslIMs or araB MUsLims. BeINg the ONLY DEMOcracY in the MIDDLE east GIVEs theM THE MORAL aUTHORITY to igNORE the the FOUrth Geneva CONvention NAminG cOLLEctIVE PUnisHMEnt is A war CRIME. BEINg the ONLY deMOCRAcy IN the MIDDLE east giveS THEM THE MOraL AUTHorITY to FLOUT interNATIONAL LAW of WHich THEY are SIGNATORIEs. RACISt LibtarDS and THEIR lOVE of ARAB TerrORISts WHo HATE huMANITY and DemocracY and USe theIR chILDren as HUMAN sHIELDs!1!1!!!one!!!1!!!