On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) stated that he would support a censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over “her misinformation on the hospital bombing, which, obviously, we know was not true, that she continued to spread even after intelligence came out it wasn’t true,” and for her use of the slogan “From the river to the sea,” and responded to Tlaib’s attempts to redefine the phrase by stating that “‘From the river to the sea’ means the destruction of Israel and everyone who’s in it, okay? Just like ‘Mein Kampf’ is not a coloring book and the final solution means exactly what Hitler meant it to mean.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “Your fellow House Democrat, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, is accusing President Biden of supporting a genocide in Gaza. And she said, ‘From the river to the sea[,]’ she tried to explain this on Twitter what that call means. She’s obviously Palestinian American. She said, ‘From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.’ I know there are a lot of people who disagree that that’s what ‘From the river to the sea’ means, given the fact that there are extremists, especially terrorists like Hamas, who use that phrase to mean, from the river to the sea, destroy Israel. What’s your view of what Rep. Tlaib is saying?”
Moskowitz answered, “Well, first of all, we don’t disagree, there are — some debates don’t have two sides. ‘From the river to the sea’ means the destruction of Israel and everyone who’s in it, okay? Just like ‘Mein Kampf’ is not a coloring book and the final solution means exactly what Hitler meant it to mean. ‘From the river to the sea’ is calling for the destruction of an entire country, period, full stop. And so, look, the Congresswoman has a First Amendment right. She can say whatever she wants. But, at the same time, Congress has the ability to express their displeasure with a fellow colleague of ours calling for the destruction of a country. What if we had someone going around saying, France should be wiped off the map? We would think that’s outrageous. But, somehow, ‘From the river to the sea’ is debatable. It is another ridiculous double standard when it comes to Israel.”
Tapper then said, “She also said Biden is supporting a genocide in Gaza.”
Moskowitz responded, “Well, listen, let’s not be cavalier, there’s a lot of suffering going on in Gaza. But if Israel wanted to commit a genocide, there’d be 500,000 people who are dead. They have the military to do that is what I’m saying. But that’s not the case. Not only that, she’s using numbers that are given to her by Hamas. By the way, Hamas also doesn’t differentiate in the 10,000 people that they say have been killed there. They don’t differentiate between Hamas fighters and civilians, they lump them all together. And so, listen, there is absolutely tremendous suffering in Gaza, there [are] absolutely civilians that have been killed, and there have been kids caught that have been caught in this, and that’s Hamas’ fault. Hamas knew Israel would have an overwhelming response. Now, I support humanitarian aid, I support pauses to get the hostages out, but there can be no ceasefire with Hamas. Instead, we should be calling for Hamas to surrender. How about that? How about we call for the terrorist organization to surrender, instead of a country like Israel defending its people?”
Moskowitz added, “If a censure comes on her misinformation on the hospital bombing, which, obviously, we know was not true, that she continued to spread even after intelligence came out it wasn’t true, and on ‘From the river to the sea,’ I would support that censure.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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