|
 Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Washington of "misreading"
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and he said shooting knife-wielding
Palestinians was self-defense. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan
called the U.S. remarks "foolish".
With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry due to travel to the Middle
East soon to try to calm the violence, Israeli officials said Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly ordered cabinet ministers to say
no more publicly about the latest acrimony in a long-troubled
relationship with the Obama administration.
Seven Israelis and 32 Palestinians have been killed in the past two
weeks of bloodshed, including 10 assailants, as well as children and
protesters shot in violent anti-Israeli demonstrations.
The violence has been partly triggered by Palestinians' anger over
what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem's
al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is also revered by Jews as the site
of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples.
At a daily press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman
John Kirby said Israel, which has set up roadblocks in Palestinian
neighborhoods of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem to try to stem
attacks, has a right and responsibility to protect its citizens.
But he added: "Now, we have seen some – I wouldn’t call the
checkpoints this - but we’ve certainly seen some reports of what
many would consider excessive use of force.
"Obviously, we don’t like to see that, and we want to see
restrictions that are elevated in this time of violence to be as
temporary as possible if they have to be enacted," Kirby said,
without citing specific incidents.
PALESTINIAN ALLEGATIONS
The comments touched a nerve in Israel, which has angrily denied
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' allegations that it was
"executing our sons in cold blood".
Asked on Army Radio about the U.S. remarks, Yaalon said: "Are we
exercising excessive force? If someone wields a knife and they kill
him, is that excessive force? What are we talking about?"
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said police in the United
States would act no differently in drawing their guns and using them
if necessary.
"If people with knives were roaming the streets of New York and
started stabbing people, they would not be asked to present their
ID's, and the NYPD would draw their weapons," she said on Israel
Radio. "The U.S. administration can say whatever it wants - and we
will do what is needed."
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Hours after the Israeli roadblocks went up on Wednesday, a
Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 70-year-old woman outside
Jerusalem's central bus station before a police officer shot him
dead. Palestinian officials describe the roadblocks as collective
punishment.
Prior to that incident, another Palestinian was also shot dead after
he had attempted to stab paramilitary police at an entrance to
Jerusalem's walled Old City, police said.
Israel has deployed 300 soldiers in Jerusalem and throughout the
country to try to stop the most serious eruption of Palestinian
street attacks since an uprising a decade ago.
Many Palestinians are frustrated with the failure of years of peace
efforts to bring them statehood and end Israeli settlement-building
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The powerful Islamist group Hamas, which advocates Israel's
destruction, has been vocal in supporting the current attacks, and
it called for "rallies of anger and confrontations" to be held in
West Bank cities after Friday Muslim prayers.
In his radio interview, Yaalon repeated an appeal to Israelis with
gun licenses to carry their weapons.
"Whoever doesn't have (a gun), should use whatever he has - it can
be a club, an umbrella, anything - that can ward off the stabber and
neutralize him," he said.
(Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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