From the Liveblog of
Friday, May 10, 2024
Bennett: War against Hamas would be ‘done in three days’ if Israel didn’t care about civilian casualties
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says US President Joe Biden’s decision to delay a weapons shipment to Israel is “deeply misguided,” in an interview with CNN.
“If Hamas is granted immunity because it hides behind civilians… that means that the whole global jihad organizations are all going to adopt human shields as the core way of conducting terror,” he says.
התגובה (החריפה) שלי להודעת הנשיא ביידן—ראיון לא פשוט ברשת CNN.
My response to President Biden’s arms halt decision.
It’s wrong.
ותשובתי לשאלה שלה על הציוצים האינפנטיליים של שרי הממשלה. pic.twitter.com/bTrREyX6y2— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) May 10, 2024
Bennett vehemently denies that Israel is using bombs to intentionally target Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “Absolutely not. Never. We never target civilians.”
“In fact,” he continues, “we have the lowest ratio of collateral damage in the history of urban warfare.”
Israel is “bending over backward in order to prevent unnecessary deaths,” he says. “Otherwise we’d get this whole thing done within three days if we didn’t care about it.”
The US put a transfer of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs on hold this week over concerns that Israel could use them in densely populated Rafah, as it has in other parts of Gaza.
Asked about a contentious tweet posted by far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir yesterday that said “Hamas [loves] Biden,” Bennett responds, “That’s a childish and infantile response and I’m certainly not going to defend every stupid thing that any minister says.”
