WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted US opposition to Israel’s counterattack on Gaza and calls for a “ceasefire” from some of his fellow Democrats during an interview with The Post Sunday – as he and other lawmakers were forced to air Tel Aviv raids. shelter to await Hamas rockets.
The New York Democrat said he will work to ensure that Israel has “everything they need” to “completely eliminate” the terrorist group from the Gaza Strip – adding that he feels “vindicated” in opposing former President Barack Obama’s release of money to Iran given Tehran’s aid to Hamas.
“If the threat of Hamas is not eliminated, they will do it again,” Schumer said when asked specifically about House Democrats — including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — calling for a ceasefire following the terrorist group’s surprise attack on Israel.
The senate leader’s visit comes just a week after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,300 people, mostly civilians.
Schumer and four other senators on the trip heard from relatives of about 150 people feared to have been held hostage by Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territories.
“I hope the protesters can listen to the 12 families we have whose people, their relatives are being held hostage,” Schumer told The Post, referring to the pro-Palestinian protesters who have taken to the streets in the US – including in New York and Washington DC – to call for an Israeli military response to Gaza.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced US objections to Israel’s counterattack on Gaza.AP
“Everybody, every senator is crying, everybody is crying. And I said, ‘I hope those who think Israel is wrong will just listen to these parents and the grief they’re going through through the brutal, brutal Hamas,'” he said.
Schumer also said he’s confident Iran won’t see a cent of the $6 billion in oil revenue President Biden agreed to unfreeze in August as part of a prisoner swap — after Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal also froze billions in funds.
“There is a great debate about whether Iran actually planned this event and pushed Hamas to do it or whether Hamas did it themselves, but that is debatable because there would be no Hamas without Iran, which is funding them and neither is Iran,” Schumer said. .
“One of the reasons I voted against the deal with Iran under President Obama is that it doesn’t limit — it doesn’t stop Iran from funding terrorism around the Middle East. I might feel a little vindicated.”
People gather during a rally about the Israel-Hamas conflict outside the Columbia University campus on Thursday, October 12, 2023James Keivom
Schumer was joined on the trip by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — with the group pictured Sunday at bomb shelter in response to airstrike warnings caused by Hamas rocket fire from Gaza.
The veteran Democrat, and the first Jewish leader of both houses of Congress, said he had drawn up a “long and extensive list” of defensive and offensive weapons the US could send to Israel to help “defeat” Hamas.
“I told the prime minister and everyone that we are putting together a big package,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We ask them what their needs are. Some of it is for more Iron Dome stuff. Some of them are for 155 millimeter shells… We will give them everything they need. We tell them that we will give them everything they need.”
Schumer said she felt “vindicated” that her original concerns with giving aid to Iran proved true. AP
The senators learned firsthand of Israel’s experience when air raid sirens went off while the delegation was having lunch at a restaurant, Schumer said, adding, “we all went to shelters.” And everything is fine.”
In addition to hearing from family members of several people held captive in Gaza – a group that includes an unknown number of US citizens – the senators met with senior Israeli political leaders, including Netanyahu and opposition leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, Schumer said. .
“We are sending a message to the people of Israel: We support you. We feel your pain, we are sick with you. The United States will be with you through thick and thin and we meet with everyone,” said Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Jewish American in the US government.
“We met with families who have people who are hostages,” he added. “There is not a dry eye in the house. The horror of knowing your child is in the hands of this brutal, violent terrorist. it’s horrible.”
Fireballs erupt during Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Schumer said that he did not know exactly how big the military aid package would be, but that it would be “huge.”
He would not say whether the funds would be moved more quickly through Congress by separating them from the Biden administration’s more controversial requests for Ukraine war funding.
Asked if Israeli funding would be approved independently of Ukrainian aid, Schumer said, “We’ll figure out the best package to get that aid. [to Israel] as soon as possible and as much as possible.”
One of the reasons for the trip, he said, was to compile “a list of all the things they need in the military, intelligence and humanitarian fields. And we got a long list.”
Schumer is the highest-ranking American Jew in the US government
Schumer repeatedly rebuked critics of Israel’s attack on Gaza in response to the massacre of civilians in Israel.
“Israel has to eliminate completely – it has to eliminate the threat from Hamas and look for hostages,” he said.
“It’s a difficult job, especially because Israel is not Hamas and will try to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. But they have to get it done,” he continued. “If Hamas is not defeated, in the Hamas charter, they want no Israel. Their view is that they will do to the Jews throughout Israel as they did to the Jews along the Gaza Strip.
Schumer said Israeli military operations will be “more difficult because they will try to minimize the loss of civilian life.” But Hamas is standing in the way.”
The Israeli military has urged Palestinian civilians to temporarily move to the southern half of the Gaza Strip, and Schumer said Israel is working to get water to people who have moved there.
“Hamas shot Israeli soldiers when they were trying to, you know, connect water for the people down there,” he said. “People don’t realize how brutal Hamas is.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
