On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Way Too Early,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) said that Israel has worked hard to get aid into Gaza and its efforts have worked and praised denying the Uncommitted movement a speaking slot at the DNC because “For those who have been protesting, far too often, it’s become anti-Israel, it is really just about getting rid of Israel or, in some instances, is quite antisemitic.”
Landsman said, “From what I have seen and learned, it’s clear that the defensive action that Israel took over the weekend saved a lot of lives. They took out missiles and rockets and UAVs, these launchers, that were going to attack, not just military assets in Israel, but…civilians. They target civilians, Hezbollah does. And Israel wants this to end. They want an end to this war, they want an end to the war in Gaza. Quite frankly, they don’t want war. They’ve wanted a ceasefire for 76 years. They want to be left alone. And if Iran, with pressure from the international community, stops funding terrorism with Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis, focuses on Iran, that’s a good thing for Iran, if Hezbollah stands down and backs up, that’s a good thing for everybody. If they leave Lebanon and give the Lebanese people their country back, that’s a good thing for the Lebanese, and the same thing is true for Hamas. Hamas has got to release the hostages and be done and give Gaza back to the Palestinians.”
He added, “[T]here [are] now half a dozen points of entry, hundreds of trucks a day are going in. 1.2 million polio vaccines have been delivered by the IDF. There are bakeries open, producing a ton of food. You have hospitals — field hospitals. And they have, the IDF, tactical pauses, several to ensure that aid is getting to the people that need it. So, those who called this humanitarian piece or the lack of it a genocide were so wrong, and that was such a destructive, unproductive, inappropriate way of talking about this. You have, in the IDF, through COGAT, which is the entity that does it, a 20-hours-a-day effort to get food and medicine into Gaza, and it’s working. And the vaccine piece, too, is just another example. 1.2 million vaccines have been delivered to ensure that there isn’t a polio outbreak.”
Landsman added that the way 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris talked about the conflict during her DNC speech was good and agreed with the DNC not giving any speaking slots to the Uncommitted delegates by stating that “there are folks who, like me, are very supportive of the Palestinian cause, they want Hamas out of Gaza and Hezbollah out of Lebanon, they want Israel left alone. And by the way, in Israel, you’re talking about 7 million Jews and 2 million Palestinians who want to be left alone, and they want all of this to stop. For those who have been protesting, far too often, it’s become anti-Israel, it is really just about getting rid of Israel or, in some instances, is quite antisemitic. And so, we need voices that are both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian and appreciate that both need to be lifted up and that Hamas needs to be condemned.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
