JERUSALEM—Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
met with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
amid rising violence and underscored the two countries’ shared commitment to combating Iran while calling on Israel to avoid taking steps that would complicate a two-state solution with Palestinians.
Mr. Blinken said both Israelis and Palestinians should be “enjoying equal measures of freedom, security, opportunity, justice and dignity.”
He reiterated the Biden administration’s vision of a peace process that could result in an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“As I said to the prime minister, anything that moves us away from that vision is, in our judgment, detrimental to Israel’s long-term security and its long-term identity as a Jewish and democratic state,” he said.
Mr. Blinken’s visit follows several bloody days in Israel. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed seven and injured three Israelis outside an East Jerusalem synagogue, the deadliest attack in Israel since 2008. On Saturday, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and injured two Israelis. The attacks came after a military raid aimed at capturing militants on Thursday at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank left 10 Palestinians dead. The attacks were praised by the Palestinian leadership and sparked celebrations across the West Bank and Gaza.
Upon arriving in Israel, Mr. Blinken offered condolences to the families of those killed near the synagogue, saying attacks outside a house of worship are especially shocking and condemning those who “celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism.”
Mr. Blinken, a longtime aide to
President Biden,
will meet Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas
on Tuesday. The visit comes at a low point in relations between…
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