Placing murderer, victim on same pedestal, US calls for 'mutual calm'
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for "urgent steps" to "de-escalate" the situation in occupied Palestine.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington, January 4, 2023 (AP)
In a visit to "Israel" on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for "urgent steps" to "de-escalate" the situation in occupied Palestine failing to mention the most recent Israeli massacre in Jenin last week that resulted in the martyrdom of 10 Palestinians, in addition to another Palestinian martyred in Ramallah on the same day while protesting the Israeli aggression.
The US top diplomat also failed to bring up the 35 Palestinians who were murdered by Israeli occupation forces in just 30 days into 2023, bringing the average close to 1 Palestinian killed every 20 hours.
Read more: No such thing as leftist, centrist, or rightist in Israeli government
Blinked arrived in "Tel Aviv" after a trip to Cairo where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the country's Foreign Minister.
Last Thursday, the Israeli entity committed a full-on massacre in Jenin during a morning raid.
The IOF even prevented ambulance crews from accessing the Jenin Camp, opening fire directly on the emergency vehicles, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
However, Blinken failed to bring up any of these attacks when he called for "de-escalation".
While Blinken was offering his condolences to the Israeli authorities for Al-Quds shootings that came in retaliation to the Jenin massacre, the Israeli occupation forces were killing 26-year-old Palestinian Nassim Abu Fouda in Al-Khalil, as he succumbed to the wounds he had sustained after being shot in the head by Israeli occupation forces in Al-Khalil.
Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
"All sides now to take urgent steps to restore calm, to de-escalate," Blinken said following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We want to make sure that there's an environment in which we can, I hope, at some point, create the conditions where we can start to restore a sense of security for Israelis and Palestinians alike," Blinken added.
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Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian child in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, Oct. 13, 2017. (Reuters)
Blinken also failed to ask Netanyahu about his officials' calls for Israeli settlers to carry their guns on them.
He did not discuss with the Prime Minister the implications of such a decision; that settlers would be able to kill Palestinians on mere suspicion.
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A Palestinian child sitting on the table that he once shared with his now martyred classmate Rayyan Sulaiman, last October. (Shatha Hammad)
Blinken meets with the Israeli President
The US top diplomat described the discussions with Netanyahu as "very candid".
Blinken then met with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and President Isaac Herzog.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu announced that the houses of Palestinians, who confront the Israeli aggression and carry out operations to avenge their fallen citizens, are to be demolished and their families displaced.
The Israeli policy of destroying villages and forcibly expelling their Palestinian occupants to carry out plans of building occupation settlements is not new. Last May, an Israeli non-governmental organization said "Israel" advanced plans to build 4,427 illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank.
US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter claimed then that Biden's administration "strongly opposes the expansion of Israeli settlements, which exacerbates tensions and undermines trust between the parties. Israel's program of expanding settlements deeply damages the prospects for a two-state solution."
After Washington's "strong opposition", the Israeli occupation government issued last November an order to loot around 320 dunams (230,000 square meters) of land in Beit Lahm in the southern occupied West Bank to expand its illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
The European Union had previously stated that it does not recognize Israeli authority over the West Bank, noting that "Israel's" settlement expansion is a dangerous breach of international law. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and former Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi visited the Israeli occupation entity last June.
The visitors, however, did not discuss, according to the EU, "the illegal settlements that breach international law," limiting their talks to energy.
