President Obama condemned a Tuesday attack at a Jerusalem synagogue that killed four and left eight others wounded, urging both sides to stop the violence and return to the negotiating table.
“Too many Israelis have died. Too many Palestinians have died,” he told reporters before a meeting with his national security team, Cabinet officials and senior advisers. “At this difficult time, I think it’s important for both Palestinians and Israelis to try to work together to lower tensions and reject violence.”
“We have to remind ourselves that the majority of Palestinians and Israelis overwhelmingly want peace,” he said.
The terror attack by two Palestinian cousins wielding knives and a gun was the deadliest in Jerusalem since a man with an automatic weapon killed eight seminary students in 2008, according to CNN.
Three of the victims who died were dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, and one was a British-Israeli citizen. Police reportedly responded to the synagogue attack in West Jerusalem’s Har Nof area.
Obama also addressed the ongoing Ebola crisis and the Monday death of a Nebraska surgeon who was infected while treating patients in Sierra Leone.
“Some of the attention on the crisis has ebbed over the last several weeks, but the challenge remains,” he said.
Despite the Nebraska doctor’s death, Obama said that U.S. health authorities have “established that when Ebola is properly diagnosed and treated, we have a great chance of curing it.”
He also used the occasion to call on Congress to pass more Ebola funding. Right after the midterm elections, Obama sent a request to Congress for $6.2 billion to combat the deadly virus.
Those who attended the Tuesday morning White House meeting on the U.S. response to the Ebola crisis included Vice President Joe Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, counselor to the president John Podesta, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as well as Ron Klain, the White House Ebola response coordinator.
