Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.
“What is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging the end to this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying – demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that,” Blinken said during a press briefing at the State Department Wednesday.
“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.
The strong comments from Blinken come as the United Nations Security Council continues to negotiate a resolution calling for a suspension in fighting and encouraging more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip, and as the United States’ support for the resolution remains unresolved.
What a stupid comment by Blinken.
If there was no Hamas, Israeli settlers would still be committing terrorist acts on unarmed Palestinians in West Bank and right wing politicians would still be threatening to tear down Al Aqsa. If Hamas vanished tomorrow, none of that would change. Netanyahu would still refuse to recognize a two state solution and would refuse to negotiate with Abbas or the PA. Gazans would be in an open air prison.
The Israeli military shot unarmed Palestinian protestors and the US State Department did nothing. Palestinians asked the international community for help to end their oppression and the Israeli government called it “diplomatic terrorism” and sanctioned Palestinians further. Boycotting Israel is illegal in US law. Why should anyone listen to the US State Department’s recommendations when they don’t even follow through?