Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday called on Secretary of State John Kerry to either retract statements out his own department saying the U.S. believes Israel is behind acts of “terror,” or resign.
“Once again, Sec. Kerry and his staff have proven themselves utterly unfit for the positions they hold,” Cruz said. “Mr. Kirby should immediately retract his offensive assertion that Israel is ‘guilty of acts of terror’ or resign, and Sec. Kerry should immediately disavow these remarks or resign.”
Cruz was referring to State Department spokesman John Kirby, who said this week that both Israelis and Palestinians are at fault in the escalating violence in Israel.
Kirby has been on the defensive all week, as reporters have pressed him repeatedly on whether the Obama administration sees both sides as equally at fault for this violence, or whether it’s more the fault of the Palestinians who have started to target Israelis in their home country.
But Kirby has responded mostly by saying both sides need to take steps to curb the violence, and at one point said both sides are guilty of terrorist acts.
“Well, I would say certainly individuals on both sides of this divide are … have proven capable of and in our view guilty of acts of terror,” he said.
Cruz said that answer is unacceptable.
“The Obama administration is the most hostile we have seen towards the nation of Israel in our nation’s history,” he said. “In the last few days, this obsessive antagonism has been on full display.”
“It is utterly unacceptable that a senior official in the U.S. government would make such an unfounded slur against Israel, which has been our invaluable ally in the fight against terrorism,” he added. “There is no moral equivalence here between the savagery of the Palestinian terrorists and the innocent Israelis they are trying to murder.”
Kirby also said this week that the U.S. has seen reports of “excessive” use of force by Israel against Palestinians. But on Thursday, he declined again to list any of these examples.
