Ken Berwitz
Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters today thatIsrael has a right to defend itself, but discouraged against “self-help” responses to random stabbing attacks from Palestinians.
Israeli authorities have encouraged citizens with gunpermits to carry when they\’re out and about, as they can possibly stop anattacker before police can get on the scene.
Appearing at a press conference in Madrid with his Spanishcounterpart, Kerry again used the recent spate of violence in Jerusalem to callfor a two-state solution.
“Security and diplomacy go hand in hand. There is not a timefor one and then the other, really there is an importance to both. We want tosee calm restored and we want to see the violence stop. And I think everybodyin Israel and in the region would like to see both of those things happen,” Kerry said.
“We continue to urge everybody to exercise restraint andrestrain from any kind of self-help in terms of the violence…”
-Security and diplomacy do NOT go hand in hand when Palestinian Arabs are specifically, in writing, committed to obliterating Israel and killing every Jew, both there and elsewhere.-“Everybody in Israel and in the region” does NOT “want to see the violence stop”. Not when abu abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, tells his people “We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every Martyr (Shahid) will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah.”, and when hamas, in control of Gaza, publicly encourages more attacks.-Israeli\’s will NOT “restrain from any kind of self-help in terms of the violence”, because they do not want to be killed in the streets. What is an armed Israeli supposed to do when a Palestinian Arab drives his car into a bus stop filled with people, and then comes out of the car with a cleaver and starts chopping the people he just injured (that is a real example, it happened less than a week ago, and there are dozens more to choose from). Exercise restraint? Tell the Palestinian Arab that he should exercise restraint? Take out a phone, call the police, and try to keep count of how many more mutilated and/or dead Jews accumulate before they arrive? Or take his/her weapon and use it?
