From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre was ‘a coordinated attack on our shared values,’ says US speaker
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Hamas’s October 7 shock assault on Israel was “a coordinated attack on our shared values,” says US House Speaker Mike Johnson, following a meeting with an Israeli parliamentary delegation led by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
Noting that both Israeli and American citizens are being held hostage in Gaza, Johnson says that both countries “are in a war of civilizations against the enemies of freedom itself.”
“Israel is our closest ally. And when they threaten Israel – they actually threaten freedom itself,” he adds.
“Our countries share the same threats from the dark forces of the world – the Ayatollah regime. Iran must not come out of this war the way it entered it,” Ohana says after the meeting with Johnson, which also included the families of several Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
Ohana kicked off his visit to the US capital on Monday with a meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, whom he told that Israel “appreciates the support of the US from the beginning of the war, particularly the efforts that are being made to bring back the hostages, including US citizens.”
Ohana’s delegation is slated to meet with other pro-Israel lawmakers, including Senator Lindsey Graham, Senate Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, and Representatives Ritchie Torres and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others.
