US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel Tuesday – and landed in the center of a surge of deadly Arab terrorism.
Biden and his wife were greeted at Ben Gurion airport by top officials, including Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Israeli Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer.
From there, Biden traveled to Yafo (Jaffa), to attend a special event with former Israeli President Shimon Peres at his Peres Center for Peace.
The Vice President’s visit to Jaffa coincided with the third successive terror attack by Arab terrorists in Israel Tuesday evening, as one person was murdered and 10 others injured in a stabbing spree nearby. Peres and Biden were informed of the attack and they decided to go ahead with their meeting.
Peres noted this, saying: “There were grave terror attacks in Israel today, too. At this moment, terror attacks are taking place in the streets nearby us. Terrorists seek to hurt innocents and to harm the state of Israel. We will not relent and continue to fight terror with all our might.”
Biden said that “the US is fully and totally committed to the security of Israel and its citizens” and added that “we hope to see advances in this matter.”
He stressed that terrorist activity targeting children, women and innocents is “unbearable,” according to a Hebrew-language communique from the Peres Center.
Peres also declared that “there is no alternative to the two-state solution, in order to bring true peace with the Palestinians.”