2023-10-12 11:49:00
Blinken promises that US support for Israel will never wane and compares Hamas crimes to ISIS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a statement to the media inside The Kirya in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 12. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Archyde.com)
The United States will never waver in its support for Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this Thursday, adding that Hamas’ “litany of brutality and inhumanity” evoked “the worst of ISIS.”
“The message I bring to Israel is this: They may be strong enough on their own to defend themselves, but as long as the United States exists, they will never, ever have to,” Blinken said, speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. , in Tel Aviv. “We will always be by your side.”
Although the top U.S. diplomat did not explicitly speak of restraint, Blinken said he discussed with Netanyahu the importance of taking “every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
“No country can or will tolerate the slaughter of its citizens or simply return to the conditions that allowed it to take place. Israel has the right, indeed the obligation, to defend itself and to ensure that this does not happen once more,” Blinken said. .
But he also reiterated that respect for civilian life is what distinguishes democracies from the likes of Hamas, saying: “As the prime minister and I discussed, the way Israel does this matters.”
Blinken also stressed that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.
American aid: The US is “supplying ammunition, interceptors to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome, along with other defense material,” Blinken said, noting that the “first shipments of US military support have already arrived to Israel and there are more on the way.”
“As Israel’s defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure they are met. And I can tell you that there is overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan support in our Congress for Israel’s security,” Blinken said.
Blinken echoed President Joe Biden’s “very clear warning” “to any adversary—state or not—who thinks of taking advantage of the current crisis to attack Israel: Don’t do it.”
“We continue to work closely with Israel to secure the release of the men, women, children, elderly, held hostage by Hamas. We carry out intense diplomatic work throughout the region to prevent the conflict from spreading, and I will do so throughout my trip in the coming days,” Blinken declared.
Blinken’s trip is expected to continue beyond his original stops in Israel and Jordan, a State Department official said.
The US has been “adamant” with other nations regarding the need to unequivocally condemn Hamas attacks, the top US diplomat said, cataloging the horrors committed by the terrorist group: “Babies slaughtered, bodies desecrated, young men burned alive, women raped, parents executed in front of their children, children in front of their parents.
“I understand on a personal level the heartbreaking echoes that the Hamas massacres have for Israeli Jews, indeed for Jews around the world,” Blinken said, describing his own identity as a father and a Jew.
“There is no excuse. There is no justification for these atrocities,” he said. “This is—this must be—a moment for moral clarity.”
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