US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed strong support for Israel and condemned a wave of Palestinian attacks today as he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to ease weeks of violence.
Arriving with scant hopes for a major breakthrough, Kerry discussed with Netanyahu ways of calming tensions and planned to do the same later in the day with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.
"Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives, with scissors, cars," Kerry told reporters at Netanyahu's office ahead of talks with the Israeli prime minister.
"And it is very clear to us that terrorism, these acts of terrorism, deserve the condemnation that they are receiving and today I express my complete condemnation for any act of terror that takes innocent lives."
Kerry also mentioned American victims of the attacks, with at least three US citizens -- two with dual citizenship and one from Kerry's home state of Massachusetts -- killed in the wave of violence that began on October 1.
He however made no mention of resolving the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his remarks before the meeting amid US pessimism over whether significant negotiations can take place before President Barack Obama leaves office in little over a year.
After the talks with Netanyahu ended, Kerry spokesman John Kirby said that the two discussed Syria and the Islamic State group as well as "steps that can be taken to stop the violence in Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank".
The lack of specifics, at least publicly, regarding the Palestinians will likely disappoint Abbas, with Palestinian officials saying in the run up to today's meeting that they were hoping Kerry would pressure Netanyahu.
Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary-general Saeb Erekat told AFP in an interview Monday that if nothing concrete comes out of the meetings with Kerry, the Palestinians could move forward on changing longstanding links with Israel, including security coordination.
The violence has left 92 Palestinians dead, including one Arab Israeli, as well as 17 Israelis -- including the two Israeli-Americans -- one American and an Eritrean.
Many of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers, while others were shot during demonstrations and clashes with Israeli security forces.
