On Wednesday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) floated the possibility that “our bombs just created what it’s created in Gaza,” and stated Israel is “essentially” “shooting a fish in a barrel” with the “over-response, the collective punishment that’s coming out of Israel back to the citizenry, the Palestinians in Gaza, who are clearly not Hamas.”
Pocan said, “You can’t have the attack that happened to Israel by a terrorist group like Hamas. At the same time, you can’t have the over-response, the collective punishment that’s coming out of Israel back to the citizenry, the Palestinians in Gaza, who are clearly not Hamas. And yet, both are happening and we need to deal with both. So, I hope the president’s there to say — and look, we provide a lot of armament, we provide a lot of support, Israel’s an ally, but if you overreach and you hurt public opinion, it’s harder for us to help you.”
He added, “I think there’s going to be a big question on the floor, part of the supplemental that comes to us will probably have funding for Ukraine and for Israel and for other things, but it’s also supposed to have humanitarian assistance. I, yesterday, heard that humanitarian assistance may be incredibly pale. And if that’s the case, I think there are some of us who are willing to vote against the supplemental if we can’t provide money — if our bombs just created what it’s created in Gaza, in many cases, we have a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance back. And I think it’s really important the White House and others are hearing that, because there’s a lot of damage and a lot of hurt, there [are] 2.2 million people in Gaza. They’re not allowed to leave. Think about it, you’ve heard of the shooting a fish in a barrel line before. That’s essentially what’s happening right now. And if we don’t provide adequate assistance, we’re not living up to what the United States is about when it comes to helping people across the globe.”
Pocan concluded that humanitarian aid and helping Israel have to be coupled and “I’ve been supportive of Israel in this attack. I’ve signed the resolution that says we’re supportive, but I don’t do this with blinders. I do this in seeing what I think is overreach right now happening in Gaza and I see it in a way that we have to support innocent Palestinians in Gaza. They are not Hamas, Hamas is a specific organization, and collectively punishing 2.2 million people for that, I think, is a huge mistake, and we bear some responsibility to help those people.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
