Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday said the United States should not halt weapons to Israel out of fears for the safety of civilians in Gaza.
“Given that there have been thousands of civilians that have died, do you think there should be no lever at all for the administration to try to prevent American weapons being used in attacks that even unintentionally end up killing innocent children?” a reporter asked at a news conference with Graham and several fellow Republican senators.
“I think Israel is in a fight for its life; that the reason so many Palestinians have been killed is because Hamas has command centers under hospitals. Hamas uses the Palestinian people as human shields,” Graham responded.
“Don't reward their behavior,” he continued. “What you're doing is, you're saying, 'Hamas has put Palestinians in the crosshairs of Israel, so stand Israel down?' That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my friggin' life, is that you tell the person who's about to be wiped off the map, 'You've got to slow down because your enemy is making it hard on the Palestinian people to survive because they choose to put them in harm's way!' That is ass backwards.”
The South Carolina Republican attacked Biden for his announcement Wednesday that the U.S. would halt some shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah. The president also acknowledged that some American weapons have been used to kill civilians in Gaza.
The U.S. also confirmed Tuesday that it paused the shipment of thousands of weapons to Israel last week, including 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, amid concerns about Rafah. The U.S. is reportedly also reviewing other planned transfers.
