<p>Seven Israeli Jews lie dead. Seventy more are wounded. These attacks come from Palestinians, most of them using knives; a few using guns and cars. The attacks have been prompted in part by Islamic preachers on the West Bank and by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. ;While this violence pales in comparison with the migrant crisis caused by the Syrian Civil War, the State Department seems to be focused on Israel. ;</p>
<p>John Kerry incited outrage when he hinted that the attacks were the result of Jews building homes in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years. And there&rsquo;s an increase in the violence because there&rsquo;s this frustration growing.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p><em>Apparently it makes sense to try and kill people when they move into their ancestors&#8217; homeland. ;</em></p>
<p>John Kirby, State Department spokesman, made things worse on Wednesday during a press briefing when he remained ambivalent towards the situation. ;Kirby was asked if it is &ldquo;the Administration&rsquo;s view that settlement activity is, in fact, to blame for or is responsible for the current surge in attacks that we&rsquo;re all seeing?&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>He responded, without actually answering the question, saying that the Secretary remains &ldquo;consistent&rdquo; in trying not to &ldquo;affix blame for the recent violence too particularly.&rdquo; According to Kirby, John Kerry is more concerned with the &ldquo;challenges that are posed on both sides by this absence of progress towards a two-state solution.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p><em>Apparently the Administration believes that it&rsquo;s wrong to point fingers when dozens of murders occur. ;</em></p>
<p>Mr. Kirby was then asked about the instance in Dimona, in which an Israeli attacked several Arabs as revenge for the previous attacks against Jews. &ldquo;I think you&rsquo;re going to ask me what &ndash; do we consider it an act of terrorism. And we do,&rdquo; said Kirby. ;Kirby later specified, &ldquo;I would say certainly individuals on both sides of this divide are &ndash; have proven capable of and in our view guilty of acts of terror.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p><em>Seems like Kirby is on par with Kerry in remaining &ldquo;consistent.&rdquo; ;</em></p>
<p>They went on to speak about Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, with Kirby explaining that &ldquo;we want to see the status quo restored, the status quo arrangement there on Harm al-Sharif and the Temple Mount, and for both sides to take actions to deescalate the tensions.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>When asked if the Administration believes the status quo has been broken, Kirby responded: &ldquo;Well, certainly, the status quo has not been observed, which has led to a lot of violence.&rdquo; ;Kirby later issued a clarification on Twitter, saying that he &ldquo;did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif has been broken.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>This apology did nothing to halt ;Jerusalem&rsquo;s outrage. &ldquo;The comments by the U.S. State Department spokesman are so crazy, deceitful, and baseless, that I expect President Obama and US Secretary of State Kerry to distance themselves from them, and to clarify the US position today,&rdquo; said Gilad Erdan, Public Security Minister. ;</p>
<p> ;</p>