Jayapal: Israel Will Only ‘Radicalize’ Palestinians with Death of Innocent Civilians

JAYAPAL: "I don’t think the question is about whether we should allow Israel to take out Hamas and whether all the international allies would be in favor of taking out Hamas. That is absolutely true. The question is how to do that. And there is increasing toll, both with civilians in Gaza, you know, violence in the West Bank, but also a question of whether, when you kill thousands and thousands of Palestinians and thousands of children and you bomb refugee camps, even if you are taking out some Hamas leaders — and it is unclear to me exactly who is being taken out, but let’s say you are — the reality is, if you keep doing that, you will radicalize the population and another Hamas will arise. Most of the top leaders of Hamas are not even in Gaza, they’re in other countries. And so I think we have to be clear that we need a cease-fire. And when I say cease-fire, I understand that you can’t ever have a permanent cease-fire. That’s not really realistic. But what you do is you call for a cease-fire. It is a negotiated settlement, which is why I say that you can at least have a cessation of hostilities immediately. But I do think that we need to recognize that this crisis is not going to end and Hamas is not going to be taken out unless there is a political situation that allows both Israelis and Palestinians to co-exist with self-determination next to each other. And that is something that can’t happen while Israel is continuing to bomb and kill innocent civilians in Gaza.”