US 'excessive force' comment touches nerve in Israel

Israel bristled Oct. 15 at U.S. suggestions it may have used excessive force to confront Palestinian stabbings, and also published hospital images it said refuted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?s allegation a teen suspect had been ?executed.? 

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Washington of ?misreading? the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying shooting knife-wielding Palestinians was self-defense. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called the U.S. remarks ?foolish.?

With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry due to travel to the Middle East soon to try to calm the violence, Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly ordered cabinet ministers to say no more publicly about the latest acrimony in a long-troubled relationship with the Obama administration. 

Thirty-two Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in the past two weeks of bloodshed. The Palestinian dead include 10 knife-wielding assailants, police said, as well as children and protesters shot in violent demonstrations. 

The violence has been triggered in part by Palestinians? anger over what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem?s al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is Islam?s holiest site outside Saudi Arabia and is also revered by Jews as the location of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples. 

At a daily press briefing on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Israel, which has set up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem to try to stem attacks, has a right and responsibility to protect its citizens. 

He added: ?Now, we have seen some - I wouldn?t call the checkpoints this - but we?ve certainly seen some reports of what many would consider excessive...