Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel’s right to defend itself in its ongoing war with Hamas.
Blinken spoke with Margaret Brennan Sunday on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
“No country, no country can be expected to tolerate this, to live with this,” Blinken told her about Israel’s need to confront Hamas. “And, as we said from the start, Israel has both the – the right and even the obligation not only to defend itself, but to try to make sure that, to the best of its ability, this can’t happen again.”
“It’s important, as we said, not only what they do, but how they do it, particularly when it comes to making sure that civilians are as protected as they possibly can be in this crossfire of Hamas’ making,” he continued. “But in terms of what we’re talking to Israel about in their – with regard to their military operations, it really is focused on both how they do it, and how best to achieve the results that they seek.”
“We have to remember. Israel has to do everything it can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said. “Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it’s done sometime in the future. No country could accept that.”
Asked to respond to a Palestinian spokesman who said of Israel’s targeting Hams with bombing, “Enough is enough,” Blinken responded, “Enough is enough should have been the case with Hamas two weeks ago. It would be good to hear the entire world speaking clearly and with one voice about the actions that Hamas took, about the slaughter of people, about the fact that that should be absolutely intolerable, unacceptable to anyone anywhere, any country, any people.”
“When I see the reports, when I see the photographs, when I hear the stories of young children, Palestinian children, who’ve been killed or injured, it hits me right in the gut too, just as it does when I hear – when I see these other stories, wherever it is,” he asserted. “But this is on Hamas. And the fact is, Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people.”