Ambassador says US ‘won’t stand by’ amid settler violence

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides says the Biden administration “will not stand by and watch settler violence occur” following a string of rampages targeting Palestinians in the West Bank.

“We will not stand by and watch settler violence occur. No one should have to worry about a rogue army,” Nides says at a Tel Aviv gathering of young Israelis and Palestinians organized by the Geneva Initiative.

Nides, who was accused of drawing an equivalency between Israelis killed in a Palestinian terror shooting on Tuesday and Palestinians killed during an IDF raid in Jenin on Monday, was careful to condemn the former attack in its own right.

“My heart breaks for the families who lost a loved one 48 hours ago. We need to make sure that justice is done properly,” he says.

But the ambassador went on to insist that there was nothing wrong with having sympathy for both sides of the conflict. “I can have an emotional connection to the Israeli families and also the Palestinian families. No one wants to stand by and watch that happen. My heart breaks for all these families.”

Nides reiterates the administration’s commitment to the two-state solution while acknowledging that the stance of those in Washington is not enough. “We can’t want peace more than the parties want peace. The people have got to want it. It takes the next generation. It’s this generation of people who will have to demand of the politicians to do the right thing.”

“This room is the future. Don’t listen to those politicians. They’re not the future. You are,” he says to the several dozen youths in the room — 15 Israelis and 20 Palestinians from Nablus, Hebron, Jenin and villages next to Turmus Ayya, which was ransacked by settlers yesterday.