White House spokesman urges ‘cooler heads’ to prevail, ‘restoration of status quo’ on Temple Mount
The White House expressed “deep concern” over a spate of violence that has gripped Israel Wednesday, calling on both sides to work to calm tension that has led to a string of terror attacks and clashes across the West Bank, Jerusalem and elsewhere.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms violence against Israeli and Palestinian civilians.”
He called on “all parties to take affirmative steps to restore calm and refrain from actions and rhetoric that would further inflame tensions in that region of the world.”
Asked by a reporter if the latest spate of Palestinian terror attacks and West Bank clashes that left four Israelis and three Palestinian protesters dead marked the start of a “third intifada,” the White House spokesman declined to answer, instead calling for “cooler heads” to prevail.
“I wouldn’t predict at this point what the future holds. What we’re hopeful is that despite the significance of the disagreements, that cooler heads will prevail, at least in preventing further violence and preventing a further escalation of an already tense situation,” he said.
Earnest addressed accusations by Palestinians and Israelis that the other side was violating the five-decade status quo on the Temple Mount that regulated Jewish-Muslim relations on the sensitive holy site.
“We continue to urge all sides to find a way back to the full restoration of the status quo at the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif [the Muslim name for the site], the location that has precipitated so much of the violence that we’ve seen there,” Earnest said. “This has obviously long been a volatile region of the world and we continue to urge all sides to refrain from violence and refrain from the kind of activity that would only make tensions worse there.”
Wednesday saw at least six Palestinian attacks, four targeting Israeli civilians and two against Israeli security forces, in towns throughout Israel, while Arab riots and protests continued both in the West Bank and in Arab communities in Jaffa, Lod and the Galilee.
As reported by The Times of Israel