US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday with a pledge of unwavering support from America.
Following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Blinken said: “You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists you will never have to. We will always be there by your side.”
Addressing journalists in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu praised Mr Blinken’s visit as a “tangible example of America’s unequivocal support of Israel”.
“President Biden was absolutely correct in calling this ‘sheer evil’,” Mr Netanyahu said, referring to Saturday’s unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel.
The pair shook hands after Mr Netanyahu’s remarks.
Mr Blinken said that he came before journalists “not just as secretary of state, but also a Jew”, while recounting his own family’s history of surviving the Holocaust.
“So prime minister, I understand on a personal level, the harrowing echoes that Hamas’s massacres carry for Israeli Jews, as well as Jews everywhere,” Mr Blinken said.
Mr Blinken also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
A statement from the US secretary of state after their meeting touched on the same themes as his earlier message.
“There really are two paths before countries in this region and in many ways, countries in this world,” Mr Blinken said.
“But here in the Middle East, there’s the path of integration, co-operation, normalisation and equal measures of justice, opportunity, dignity for all peoples, including the Palestinians.”
He added: “Or there’s the path that Hamas has shown to the world these last few days — terror, destruction, nihilism, a path that leads to nowhere for anyone except to the darkest places in our souls.”
