On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) stated that Israel’s “unbelievably aggressive” assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh shows that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t listening to President Joe Biden.
Himes said, “I think it’s important to draw a distinction between Israel, the Israeli government, and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is obviously aware of the fact that the United States has invested thousands of hours, untold hours in trying to get to that ceasefire deal that would release the hostages. And the Prime Minister, nonetheless, shortly after visiting the United States to give that speech to the combined session of Congress, undertook this unbelievably aggressive attack. And by the way, we shed no tears for Haniyeh and we shed no tears for the leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon. But…it very clearly, at least in the near term, takes a hostage/ceasefire deal off the table, something that the United States has invested an immense amount of energy and time in. So, right now, and this has been true for a long time, I don’t think the Prime Minister is really much listening to the President of the United States or to the advice that he’s getting inside Israel about the best way to get the hostages released.”
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