Spot the difference. The Obama Administration for you... pic.twitter.com/khIUFh7X2c— IDF Elite (@idfelite) November 20, 2015Republican presidential candidates condemn Palestinian terror in wake of murder of Ezra Schwartz - but where is the White House?
(INN) Republican presidential candidate US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) remained one of the few US officials to acknowledge the brutal murder of 18-year-old American citizen Ezra Schwartz in a Palestinian terror attack in Gush Etzion on Thursday, amid a deafening silence from Washington.
Cruz noted in a Tweet that the Palestinian Arab terrorism behind Schwartz's murder, as well as behind the whole terror war which has plagued Israel since September, is simply an outcropping of the same radical Islam the US does condemn - that of Islamic State (ISIS).
Another strain of the radical Islamic terrorism that struck Paris murdered American Ezra Schwartz in Israel today - https://t.co/gNK0gn1F0a— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 19, 2015
Fellow Republican nominee Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) also acknowledged the murder, calling for "Palestinian incitement to end."
Despicable Palestinian terror attack that killed 3, including an American, near Jerusalem today. Time for Palestinian incitement to end.— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 19, 2015
Florida governor Jeb Bush also acknowledged the attacks.
Praying for the recent victims of Palestinian terror. We must stand with Israel, and against all forms of terror. https://t.co/W0UEtMRoQs— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) November 19, 2015
Ezra Yehiel Schwartz, 18, was a US citizen and a student at the Ashreinu Yeshiva in Beit Shemesh. He was murdered Thursday as he and a set of friends traveled to volunteer work in Oz VeGaon, the site in Gush Etzion established in the wake of the abduction and murders of three Israeli teens last summer.
The US State Department issued a general condemnation of terror to the media, calling on "all sides" to issue restraint late Thursday night, but without mentioning Schwartz by name.
The White House, President Barack Obama, and Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro did not release specific statements about Schwartz's murder as of Friday morning, more than 12 hours after Schwartz was identified as the victim.
