As Conflict Escalates in Middle East, U.S. Says It is Not Taking Sides
- Updated Oct 14, 2015
While tensions and violence continue to escalate in the Middle East, the U.S. says it will not be choosing sides.
Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been increasing in the past weeks. ABC News reports that recently, a Palestinian terrorist drove a van at full speed into a group of pedestrians waiting at a bus stop.
In video footage of the brutal attack, the man then gets out of the vehicle and begins to attack with a cleaver a victim that appears to still be alive. The man is then shot by a security guard.
ABC News reports that much of the violence in the region on the Palestinian side has been by knife-wielding Palestinian teenagers. Twenty-two Israelis were reported wounded on Tuesday (Oct. 13).
Both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said they intend to firmly defend their respective peoples.
The U.S., however, has said it will not choose sides in the conflict.
“We read the newspapers and we see what is happening,” Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday when asked who should take responsibility for the violence. "I am not -- from thousands of miles away -- going to get into a tick-tock of what happened when or how it happened."
Kerry went on to say that the U.S. firmly condemns the recent Palestinian attack and urged both sides to restrain the violence.
Photo: City of Jersualem
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Publication date: October 14, 2015
