U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out media outlets and governments that have called for a ceasefire of Israel but have not asked Hamas to stop hiding behind civilians and surrender.
This happened during a press conference when a reporter pointed out that much of the world is blaming the U.S. and Israel. The reporter added that America’s support for Israel was hurting America’s image.
“Let me say this: We believe that, as we said from the outset, Israel has not only a right, but an obligation, to defend itself and to try to make sure that October 7 never happens again. Any other country in the world faced with what Israel suffered on October 7 would do the same thing,” Blinked stated.
“We have said and been very clear that how Israel does it matters tremendously; there too we have been very deeply engaged with them to maximize protections for civilians, to maximize humanitarian assistance, to minimize harm, to move the people in Gaza,” he added.
Deriding the hypocrisy in the refusal to make demands of Hamas.
“One thing striking to me is understandably everyone would like to see the conflict end as soon as possible, but if this ends with Hamas remaining in place and having the capacity and a stated intent to repeat October 7 again and again and again that is not in the interest of Israel. It is not in the interest of the region. It is not in the interest of the world,” he stated.
The secretary of state emphasized that Israel surrendering is not the only way the war between Israel and Hamas ends. “This is over tomorrow if Hamas does. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago if Hamas had done that,” he said.
Blinken further wondered how there are no widespread demands of Hamas, whose actions triggered actions from Israel in the first place.
“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim? It would be good if there was a strong international voice pressing Hamas to do what is necessary to end this,” he said.
Blinken snaps at foreign countries demanding Israel put down their arms while making NO demands of Hamas — the only demands he sees are ones placed on the victim country and none on the aggressor. pic.twitter.com/09Xp4fYF94
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 20, 2023
Blinken’s remarks come amid calls for Israel to cease fire, calls that have mostly come from progressives. In October, a group of Democrat lawmakers introduced a resolution that aimed at a ceasefire in Israel’s operations in Gaza.
“We all know collective punishment of millions of Palestinians is a war crime. No one – no one – can deny that. The answer to war crimes can never be answered with more war crimes,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
