US Ambassador: 2023 surpassing 2022 as deadliest year since 2nd Intifada

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield put Palestinian terrorists and Israeli “settlers” on equal footing in address to the Security Council.

By World Israel News

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. was “deeply troubled” by the violence between Israel and the Palestinians, and warned that 2023 was on track to the deadliest year since the Second Intifada.

“The United States remains deeply concerned by the sustained violence in Israel and the West Bank. 2022 was the deadliest year since the Second Intifada. And 2023 is on track to surpass this staggering level of violence,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said.

Drawing a moral equivalency between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria, the UN envoy went on: “The United States is troubled by the escalation of violent attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and by violent attacks against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. We reject all such acts of violence, as well as incitement to violence. And let me also underscore that accountability and justice should be pursued with equal rigor – and resources – in all cases of extremist violence,” she said.

She also slammed “unhelpful rhetoric that only serve to inflame tensions,” ahead of Ramadan and Passover, which coincide this year.

Thomas-Greenfield extolled the security summit in Jordan last month, and the follow-on meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh last week, with Israel, the Palestinians, and Jordan, and Egypt delegations. “These meetings are an affirmation that both sides can seek calm and find a way forward,” she said, adding that “a two-state solution remains the best way to ensure Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace and security.”

“The road ahead will not be easy. But if the parties commit to peace and dialogue, a brighter future is possible – one of equal measures of freedom, security, and prosperity for all,” she concluded.

The ambassador made no mention of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s remarks that “the Palestinian people are an invention that is less than 100 years old” or of Israel’s decision to repeal parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law that bar Israelis from entering four evacuated communities in northern Samaria, in moves strongly censured by the US State Department yesterday.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that the Biden Administration found Smotrich’s remarks “to not only be inaccurate but also deeply concerning and dangerous.”

“The Palestinians have a rich history and culture,” Patel said.

Patel also said that “the United States is extremely troubled that the Israeli Knesset has passed legislation rescinding important parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, including the prohibition on establishing settlements in the northern West Bank.”

Patel claimed that Homesh, one of the four communities is “illegal” even under Israeli law because it was “built on private Palestinian land.”