US defends ambassador’s condolence call to terror victims against Palestinian criticism

Greenblatt slammed the PA for criticizing Friedman’s condolence visit to the widow of a terror victim while failing to condemn the terrorist.  

By: World Israel News Staff

Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special Mideast envoy, assailed the Palestinian leadership for criticizing the US ambassador to Israel for consoling the widow of a terror victim. The Palestinian Authority did not condemn the terror attack.

Ambassador David Friedman made a condolence visit on Monday to Tal Ovadia, the widow of Yotam Ovadia, 31 and a father of two young boys, who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist near his home in Adam last Thursday.

As the ambassador left his visit with Ovadia’s widow, he commented, “A young mother left alone to care for two small children, parents grieving for their only son. Words are insufficient to describe the evil and barbarity of the terrorist act.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday issued a statement blasting Friedman “with the strongest words” for his “provocative visits” “to settlements in the occupied West Bank.”

Friedman fired back on Twitter, writing that “yesterday I visited a young widow grieving the death of her husband, murdered last week by a Palestinian terrorist. I was heartbroken by her tears and those of her in-laws who had lost their only son.”

“Today, the PA Foreign Ministry condemned my visit. Nothing more to say,” he wrote.

Greenblatt defended his colleague’s actions on Twitter, writing that “the PA chose not to condemn the heinous murder of Yotam Ovadia (not surprising), but instead condemned US Ambassador to Israel for conveying POTUS’s condolences and trying to bring comfort to Yotam’s widow, orphans & parents whose only son was murdered in cold blood by a terrorist.”

“Amb. Friedman’s visit was not about politics. As my dear friend & colleague [Friedman] said “Nothing more to say”!” Greenblatt added.