‘White House Needs to Clean It Up’ or It Emboldens Hamas

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the White House is not responding to President Joe Biden’s comments to CNN about Israel. “We need to wipe it out,” he said, reaffirming his support. He also called on the White House to spread the message that Hamas is maintaining a ceasefire. Ta.

After saying that Biden’s comments did not accurately reflect the administration’s position, Smith said, “I think the White House needs to sort things out and reiterate its support for Israel. “I agree with my colleague, Representative Jared Golden (D),” he said. -ME), my friend, with comments [that the remarks are a signal of weakness]. Currently, the main group maintaining the ceasefire is Hamas. We have been negotiating a ceasefire for three months. Hamas refuses to agree to this, as it insists that Israel basically surrender unilaterally and does not even promise to return the hostages if it does. If Hamas returned the hostages, Israel would agree to a ceasefire lasting approximately two months and eight weeks, but Hamas is blocking that. I think we need to get that message across. As long as it looks like we are moving away from Israel, that only gives Hamas more incentive to keep fighting. ”

Smith concluded that Biden’s comments were “not political because there are very legitimate concerns about the way Israel is waging its war in Gaza.” They are not doing enough to accept humanitarian aid. It’s been going on for months now. Now, it’s been getting better over the last 4-6 weeks. But I think Israel made a big mistake early on in telling the world that it wasn’t interested in humanitarian aid. They made a big mistake in being slow to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza. And I don’t think they were as careful as they should have been about protecting civilians in their current operations in Gaza. And I think it’s entirely appropriate for the president to urge that to change because not doing so would compromise Israel’s security. But that’s not the same as saying they are separated. So I think he needs to make that clear, but he has good reason to criticize what Israel has done in certain aspects of the campaign. ”