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Israel Has Right to Self-Defense, White House Says

28 June 2006

U.S. working with Israel, Palestinians and Egypt to release captured soldier

Washington -- The Bush administration says Israel “has the right to defend itself and the lives of its citizens,” and called upon the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to return Israel’s kidnapped soldier, while at the same time urging Israel not to harm innocent civilians or to cause unnecessary destruction to civilian property.

White House press secretary Tony Snow, speaking to reporters June 28 after Israel launched a military operation into Gaza, said the June 25 kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit and the violent attacks by Hamas “have precipitated the current events in Gaza.”

He said Hamas, which heads the Palestinian Authority (PA), “should release and return the kidnapped Israeli soldier immediately,” and said the Palestinian Authority has the responsibility to “stop all acts of violence and terror.”

“Hamas has done the opposite,” he said.  “It's been complicit in perpetrating violence, terror and hostage-taking.”

Corporal Shalit’s kidnappers are demanding that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian women and children in exchange for information about him.  The Israeli military operation, which began June 27, has disrupted water and electricity supplies to Gaza, and destroyed three bridges.

The press secretary said the Israeli military operation is being conducted in an effort to reclaim the kidnapped soldier.

“[T]hey're doing what they can to return him. And it would be a lot easier if the Palestinian Authority and if Hamas simply returned the kidnapped soldier,” he said. The press secretary also urged that Israel “ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure.”

Snow said all parties involved “ought to take every measure to restore the security situation in Gaza.”

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in contact with both Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

“[W]e continue to do everything we can with our friends in Israel, with the PA presidency, and with other countries in the region to bring this crisis to a peaceful solution,” he said mentioning Egypt which “continues to play an important role in helping to promote peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians.”

U.S. diplomacy is currently focused on securing the captured Israeli soldier’s immediate release and putting an end to the current crisis “which has been provoked by terrorist hostage-taking,” Ereli said.

“I think that's what all of us seek, and that's what [President] Abbas seeks. That's what the Egyptians seek. That's what the United States seeks. That's what the Israelis seek,” he said.

The U.S. role “in this crisis and in others is to act as a force for good, for a peaceful resolution, for protection of innocent life, and for clear and effective response to terror -- all of which, by the way, Hamas clearly doesn't subscribe to,” he said.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)