Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Monday morning with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv.
President Herzog thanked Blinken for his visit, stressing the importance of the friendship between the US and Israel, and adding that Blinken’s frequent visits have caused Israelis to feel that he is “part of our nation.”
“In the last 24 hours we have witnessed ongoing terror attacks by Palestinian terrorists,” he added. “We have suffered the loss of Gidon Peri, a 38-year-old father of three, husband, a lover of music who went to work in a plant and one of his pals in the work place decided to murder him, simply because he’s a Jew and an Israeli. A very great tragedy.”
“Last night, we’ve witnessed a suspected major terror attack in Tel Aviv, which is under investigation, with a possible suicide bomber, and this morning our soldiers have been attacked in Ya’ara – Ya’ara is on the border with Lebanon – by Hezbollah terrorists with drones, and there is information that we have suffered possible casualties.
“This is the way we are living these days,” he stressed. “We are surrounded by terror from four corners of the earth, and we are fighting back as a resilient and strong nation, and this also is reflected in the attitude of Hamas in the negotiations for the release of our hostages. Because one has to remember the refusal, the adamant refusal, and I’ve been following your statements on this for months. At the end, at the bottom line of it, people have to understand it starts with a refusal of Hamas to move forward.”
“We are simply still very hopeful that we can move forward in the negotiations that are held by the mediators,” he said. “There is no greater humanitarian objective, and there’s no greater humanitarian cause than bringing back our hostages home as they should have returned long ago. We want to see them back home as soon as possible. There’s no greater prayer, and there’s no greater hope and no greater effort to try everything possible to bring them back home.”
Blinken also expressed his thanks to US President Joe Biden for his support of Israel’s war against Iran’s proxies.
“I want to thank you personally, and I want to thank the President for showing and projecting power in this region as the message should be clear that no one should attack Israel or meddle with our clear and inherent right of self defense,” he concluded.
Blinken responded, “This is my ninth visit since October 7 to Israel, to the Middle East. This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”
“I’m here as part of an intensive diplomatic effort on President Biden’s instructions to try to get this agreement to the line, and ultimately over the line. It’s time for it to get done. It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process.”
Blinken added that the US is “looking to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line, or for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity.”
“I know that this is a fraught moment in Israel. We’re deeply concerned about the possibility of attacks coming from Iran, coming from Hezbollah and other sources, and as you heard the President say, the United States is taking decisive action to deploy forces here, to deter any attacks, and if necessary to defend against any attacks. But the focus of my visit is intensely on getting the hostages back, getting the ceasefire done. It is time for everyone to get to yes and to not look for any excuses to say no.”
“We mourn the losses the President has shared over the last 24 hours,” he concluded.