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A variety of members of Congress have discussed possible resolutions to the Israel-Hamas war, though one Michigan Republican went in a direction others have avoided. NBC News reported:
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said this week that the conflict in Gaza should be over quickly “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” and the United States should refrain from sending any humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave as Israel’s war with Hamas continues.
At a town hall meeting last week, a local voter asked, in apparent reference to Palestinians in Gaza, “Why are we spending our money to build a port for them?”
According to a video from the event, Walberg said, “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid.” As part of the same response, he went on to say, “It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” referring to the Japanese cities hit with atomic bombs during World War II.
The GOP congressman ultimately took steps to walk back the sentiment, saying in a written statement that he “used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way.”
Whether reasonable observers find the “metaphor” defense compelling remains to be seen.
Stepping back, it’s hardly a secret that President Joe Biden has received criticism, even from political allies, for his administration’s support for Israel’s government during its ongoing efforts in Gaza. That said, the Democratic president has taken a variety of steps that might help mitigate the condemnations.
It was, after all, Biden and his team that shielded Palestinians in the United States from deportation, approved aid drops into Gaza, denounced Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, began construction of a port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian assistance by sea, warned Netanyahu’s government not to launch an assault on Rafah, and sponsored a United Nations resolution calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war.
Meanwhile, there are leading Republican officials, who don’t appear eager to reach out to the voters opposed to Biden’s foreign policy.
Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, for example, argued that there are “very few innocent” Palestinian civilians. Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee endorsed deadly violence against those in Gaza. Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana called for the deportation of Palestinians from the United States — and then launched a fundraising campaign based on his proposal.
There’s also, of course, Donald Trump, whose team wants to expel Palestinians from Gaza, and who has called on Israeli Defense Forces to “finish the problem“ in Gaza.
It was against this backdrop that the GOP’s Walberg not only rejected the idea of humanitarian aid in Gaza, he also said the conflict should be resolved “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima.”