Blinken visits Israel during cease-fire

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Israel Tuesday to address tensions between Israel and Palestinian terror groups. The trip comes after weeks of rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and during a cease fire.

As noted by reporter Jackson Richman, the press release revealed he visited Jerusalem. The US recognized Israel’s capital when the embassy was moved to Jerusalem in 2018 under President Donald Trump.

Blinken will be in the area until Thursday. He promised to accomplish further peace-keeping during his trip.

“I’m here, as I said earlier, to reaffirm the strong commitment of United States to Israel’s security, to the partnership between us, to move forward now on dealing with the humanitarian situation in Gaza and also starting to rebuild, to re-engage with the Palestinian community and Palestinian Authority,” Blinken said alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi before their meeting. He was repeating his pledge from earlier with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and repeated himself again to the US embassy.

Blinken’s visit comes after many GOP lawmakers accused the Biden administration of not supporting Israel enough as an ally. The Secretary of State was involved in Israeli issues back in 2014. Netanyahu thanked him personally and publicly because he “supported us by having Iron Dome replenishments, a quarter of a billion dollars, that [Blinken] personally shepherded through the system very quickly.” He also thanked Blinken and Biden “for firmly supporting Israel’s right of self-defense.”

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