From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
RFK Jr. says any other nation would ‘level’ Gaza if attacked like Israel on Oct. 7
LOS ANGELES — Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr offers staunch support for Israel in a Reuters interview, calling it a “moral nation” that was justly responding to Hamas provocations with its attacks on Gaza and questioning the need for a six-week ceasefire backed by President Joe Biden.
Biden has also been a vocal defender of Israel since the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, but he has recently pressured it to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate a six-week ceasefire for hostage releases and aid delivery.
Asked if he supports a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Kennedy tells Reuters: “I don’t even know what that means right now.”
Kennedy says that each previous ceasefire “has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time?” he says
Speaking from an office crammed with bookshelves, taxidermied animals and insect specimens, Kennedy tells Reuters he sees wars as either moral crusades that should be pursued or wars of choice that should be avoided.
“World War I was an immoral war. It was a war of choice. We should have never gone,” he says.
Israel did not choose this war, he says, comparing it to US involvement in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kennedy says Hamas is to blame for Gaza’s destruction for failing to embrace a two-state solution and for firing thousands of missiles into Israeli cities like Tel Aviv.
“Any other nation that was adjacent to a neighboring nation that was bombing it with rockets, sending commandos over to murder its citizens, pledging itself to murder every person in that nation and annihilate it, would go and level it with aerial bombardment,” Kennedy says.
“But Israel is a moral nation. So it didn’t do that. Instead, it built an Iron Dome to protect itself so it would not have to go into Gaza.”
He says Hamas gave Israeli leaders no choice after Palestinian terrorists stormed into Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages.
Kennedy adds that he thinks a US president should be contacting leaders from Russia, Turkey and Egypt to put an end to Hamas.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
