WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate passed a resolution expressing support for Israel and condemned Palestinian terror attacks.
Senate Resolution 302 passed by unanimous consent on Tuesday. The resolution, introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, condemned in the “harshest terms possible,” attacks that have left 11 Israelis dead and 145 wounded, and called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to stop incitement by Palestinian officials and media.
It further affirmed that the Senate “stands with the people of Israel during these difficult days” and supports the Jewish state’s right to self-defence, rejecting “any suggestion of the moral equivalence of Israeli security personnel” protecting its citizens and “terrorists intent to deliberately take innocent lives.”
Reiterating U.S. policy that a final peace deal must be negotiated, the resolution called on all parties to return to talks “immediately and without preconditions.” The resolution was introduced on Nov. 3, a few days prior to the White House’s announcement that the U.S. would not broker a peace agreement before President Barack Obama leaves office. At the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual conference this week in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was still in favour of “two states for two peoples.”
The resolution had 67 bipartisan co-sponsors, 41 Republicans and 26 Democrats. The week prior, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own resolution condemning Palestinian terror.
