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Israeli Minister to Kerry: ‘We’re Using Excessive Force?!’

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Details of Secretary of State John Kerry's upcoming visit to Europe and the Middle East remain fluid Monday.

While Kerry confirmed participation in a meeting Thursday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, there's been no official word on getting together with King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Saturday in Amman.

What remains unchanged is Israel's reaction to Kerry's call for "both sides" to tamp down on violence, equating Palestinian terror attacks with Israeli respones.

In an interview with Army Radio last week, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon rejected accusations that Israeli forces were using excessive force against terrorists.

"We're using excessive force? If someone raises a knife [to attack someone] and is shot, that's excessive force?" Ya'alon chided.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu rejected a French proposal to deploy international "observers" on the Temple Mount.

"Only Israel, Israel alone, is the guarantor of the holy sites on the Temple Mount," Netanyahu told cabinet ministers.

"Israel cannot accept the French draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council," he said. "It doesn't mention Palestinian incitement; it doesn't mention Palestinian terrorism; and it calls for the internationalization of the Temple Mount."

"The reason the status quo has been violated is not because we changed it. We didn't change anything. The orders of prayer, the visiting rights have not changed for the last 15 years," he said.

Over the weekend, more P.A. officials accused Netanyahu of approving "summary executions" against Palestinian civilians. Last week, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the P.A. wants the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli "crimes."

Meanwhile, P.A. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called on the Quartet (U.S., E.U., U.N. and Russia) to "stop all Israeli crimes and assaults" on Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported.

According to the report, Hamdallah accused Israel of inciting against and killing "innocent Palestinians, especially women and children." He also called for the resumption of peace talks "to end the occupation and create a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

But Netanyahu says Israel is not the source of incitement.

It's "Islamist hoodlums paid by the Islamist movement in Israel and by Hamas" who are attacking Jewish and Christian visitors to the Temple Mount," Netanyahu said. "That's the only change in the status quo."

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.