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Blinken blasts reporter, defends Israel: Why is nobody ‘demanding Hamas stop hiding behind civilians’

December 23, 2023 | | Print Article

To his credit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken this Wednesday slammed a reporter for suggesting Israel is doing something wrong by defending itself from Hamas.

Appearing at a press briefing, Blinken criticized the reporter after said reporter tried to shame the Biden administration for allying itself with Israel in the ongoing war with Hamas.

“We end this year with much of the world blaming the U.S. and Israel for [the war in Gaza]– or seeing it as America’s war also. It’s hurting America’s image in the world. … I wonder if there is anywhere that you’re rethinking strategy or have some ideas on how to change dynamics on any of those conflicts,” the reporter said.

In response, Blinken destroyed them.

“Any other country in the world faced with what Israel suffered on October 7th would do the same thing.  We’ve also said – and we’ve been very clear – that how Israel does it matters and matters tremendously. And there, too, we’ve been very deeply engaged with them to maximize protections for civilians, to maximize humanitarian assistance, to minimize harm to people in Gaza,” he said.

“One of the things that’s striking to me is that, understandably, everyone would like to see this conflict end as quickly as possible, but if it ends with Hamas remaining in place and having the capacity and the stated intent to repeat October 7th again and again and again, that’s not in the interests of Israel, it’s not in the interests of the region, it’s not in the interests of the world,” he added.

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Turning to his core point, he then asked why the hell Israel’s critics aren’t making similar demands of Hamas.

“And what is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging the end to this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying, demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender,” he said.

“This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that.  This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that.  And how could it – how can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” he added.

Blinken’s remarks received widespread applause on the social media platform X, even from some conservatives.

Look:

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The secretary’s remarks came two days after a report emerged about how “international criticism of Israel is ramping up.”

“On Saturday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annaalena Baerbock called for a ‘sustainable cease-fire” in the Middle East, lamenting that ‘too many civilians have been killed’ in the Israel-Hamas war,” a report from Politico reads.

“U.K.’s former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace called Israel’s military operation’s ‘a killing rage.’ … A senior European diplomat made a similar comment … : “Although the scale of the Hamas attack … was more awful than anything Israel has ever seen, the pattern whereby Israel reacts and keeps on reacting even though we all ask them to stop, that’s not new,” the report continues.

Israel is also facing criticism from U.S. politicians like Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently that he was “proud” of his work in blocking a two-state solution, Coons categorized the PM as “an exceptionally difficult partner.”

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Vivek Saxena
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