The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 16, 2014
Remarks by the President on Foreign Policy
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

5:44 P.M. EDT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/16/remarks-president-for=
eign-policy

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I want to briefly discuss the =

important actions we=92re taking today in support of Ukraine. Before I do,=
I =

want to take a few minutes to update the American people on some pressing =

foreign policy challenges that I reviewed with Secretary Kerry this =

afternoon.

...

Third, we continue to support diplomatic efforts to end the violence betwee=
n =

Israel and Hamas. As I=92ve said repeatedly, Israel has a right to defend =

itself from rocket attacks that terrorize the Israeli people. There is no =

country on Earth that can be expected to live under a daily barrage of =

rockets. And I=92m proud that the Iron Dome system that Americans helped =

Israel develop and fund has saved many Israeli lives.

But over the past two weeks, we=92ve all been heartbroken by the violence, =

especially the death and injury of so many innocent civilians in Gaza - men=
, =

women and children who were caught in the crossfire. That=92s why we have =

been working with our partners in the region to pursue a cease-fire - to =

protect civilians on both sides. Yesterday, Israel did agree to a =

cease-fire. Unfortunately, Hamas continued to fire rockets at civilians, =

thereby prolonging the conflict.

But the Israeli people and the Palestinian people don=92t want to live like =

this. They deserve to live in peace and security, free from fear. And tha=
t=92s =

why we are going to continue to encourage diplomatic efforts to restore the =

cease-fire, and we support Egypt=92s continued efforts to bring this about. =

Over the next 24 hours we=92ll continue to stay in close contact with our =

friends and parties in the region, and we will use all of our diplomatic =

resources and relationships to support efforts of closing a deal on a =

cease-fire. In the meantime, we=92re going to continue to stress the need =
to =

protect civilians - in Gaza and in Israel - and to avoid further escalation.
________________________________________
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