Washington – Obama, Kerry Call Schwartz Family With ‘Profound’ Condolences

Washington – US President Barack Obama called the parents of Ezra Schwartz on Monday to offer his “profound condolences,” after the 18-year-old US citizen was murdered in a terrorist attack in Israel last week.

The president “underscored that Ezra’s studies in Israel strengthened the bonds between Israel and the United States and, as we mourn his death, those bonds only grow stronger,” one senior administration official said of the call.

Several other Americans were injured in the incident, which was just one in a series of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks by Palestinian perpetrators that have plagued Israel in recent weeks.

Obama, the official continued, “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that took his life.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke with Schwartz’s parents, Ari and Ruth, on Monday before leaving for a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Kerry condemned all acts of terror against innocent civilians before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem.

‘The terrible scenes we have seen, around the world, have shaken us all – and we continue to send our prayers to the injured and those who lost loved ones,” said Rivlin, emphasizing that Israelis are not strangers to the horrors of terrorism.

“The pain is the same, in Tel Aviv, as it is Paris, in Gush Etzion, in Mali and in Sharon Massachusetts,” he said as he reiterated deepest condolences, to the family of Ezra Schwartz – “an 18 year old US citizen murdered while here in Israel, to study and volunteer.”

All free nations are facing the threat of radical Islam, Rivlin continued, and underscored that radical Islam “is the product of hate – not of faith.”

Rivlin also thanked Kerry for his dedication in helping to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Schwartz’s tragic and untimely death struck a chord with Kerry, not only because it was yet another example of an innocent civilian being targeted for terror, but because Kerry is from Boston.

Kerry took Schwartz’s death as a challenge to all civilized people to make it clear that there are no excuses and that nothing justifies the killing of innocent people.

He termed the terrorist attacks “an outrage’ and condemned them. He also pledged that the US will continue to stand with Israel “in support of your right to live in peace and stability without violence.”

Kerry who has been a frequent visitor to Israel since the 1980s and has traversed the length and breadth of the country from Kiryat Shmona to Sderot, said that he feels “very much part of Israel” and wrote in the presidential guest book “It is an honor to be here once again. The United States stands proudly with our ally and friend. May we find peace together.”