Vice President Joe Biden, while meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem Wednesday, lamented the death of an American tourist who was killed in a knife attack in Jaffa by a Palestinian assailant.
“Israelis and visitors to Israel cannot go on being afraid. The violence has to stop, period,” Biden said, though he noted that “it cannot and will not be done just by physical force.”
Biden praised the American tourist, Taylor Force, a 28-year-old first year MBA student and former Army officer who graduated from West Point.
Force was a soldier who “fought in two theaters, a man who is a graduate of the finest military academy in the world, West Point,” he said.
“The United States of America resoundingly condemns the terrorist violence we’ve seen lately, especially yesterday,” he said. “We take very seriously the death of every innocent civilian that comes from these venal acts of terror.”
Rivlin also expressed his condolences for Force’s death and said Israel will continue to stand firm in the “face of this violence and hatred.”
“I stand here with you in grief and in solidarity,” he said. “Our prayers go to the victim’s family, and to all the injured in the wave of terror, which struck last night and this morning.
“To my sorrow, Israel has faced this kind of terror nearly every day over the past year,” he continued. “Israel will continue to stand firm in the face of this violence and hatred. Terror will not break us, and it will not shape our future.”
Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later Wednesday. The visit comes one day after the White House scolded Israeli officials for canceling a meeting with President Obama scheduled for March 18.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that administration officials were particularly upset that they learned that Netanyahu could no longer make the meeting through press reports.
Biden appeared to refer to the latest tensions between the two administrations in brief comments about the U.S.-Israel alliance.
“Like brothers, we will disagree, sometimes strongly,” he said. “But never, never, never, have we ever disagreed with the principle that there is an absolute unyielding necessity for all world Jewry for there to be and independent Jewish state called Israel.”
