JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, criticized the Palestinian Authority for not condemning two terror attacks in recent days that left three Israelis dead.
Later Monday, at the opening of a Palestinian leadership meeting, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas called Friedman a “son of a dog” and a “settler” after noting that the ambassador views settlements as legitimate and supported them as a private citizen, The Times of Israel reported.
“Son of a dog” is a mild pejorative in Arabic, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Friedman responded while at an anti-Semitism conference in Jerusalem using the term “son of a bitch,” The Jerusalem Post reported. He added: “Anti-Semitism or political discourse? I leave this up to you.”
Friedman had posted his original remarks on Twitter very early Monday morning.
“Tragedy in Israel. 2 young soldiers, Netanel Kahalani and Ziv Daos, murdered in the North, and father of 4, Adiel Kolman, murdered in Jerusalem, by Palestinian terrorists. Such brutality and no condemnation from the PA! I pray for the families and the wounded – so much sadness,” he wrote.
Kolman was stabbed by a Palestinian assailant from the West Bank on Sunday afternoon and succumbed to his injuries that night. Hundreds attended his funeral Monday morning in the West Bank settlement of Kochav HaShachar.
Kahalani and Daos were killed in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank on Friday in which two other soldiers were seriously injured.
Last month, Friedman in a tweet accused unnamed Palestinian leaders of praising a terror attack that left a West Bank rabbi dead. A spokesman for Hamas had praised the murder of Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal; no members of the Palestinian Authority praised the attack.
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