Joe Biden Criticises 'Failure To Condemn' Palestinian Attacks

Jerusalem: US Vice President Joe Biden today implicitly criticised Palestinian leaders for not condemning attacks against Israelis, as an upsurge in violence marred his visit.

"The United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts," Biden said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop."

Six separate attacks have taken place shortly before or after Biden's arrival on Tuesday, including a stabbing spree on Tel Aviv's waterfront by a Palestinian who killed an American tourist and wounded 12 people.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has repeatedly called for peaceful resistance against the Israeli occupation, but has not specifically condemned a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that erupted in October.

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Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, often praises such attacks.

Many of the attackers have been young people, including teenagers, who appear to have been acting on their own.

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Analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel blames incitement by Palestinian leaders and media as a main cause of the violence.

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Biden will travel to Palestinian political capital Ramallah in the West Bank later Wednesday to meet Abbas.