{"id":1444414,"date":"2023-12-17T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T00:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1444414"},"modified":"2023-12-17T19:35:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T00:35:00","slug":"watch-pro-israel-congressmen-confronted-over-israels-history-of-propping-up-hamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/watch-pro-israel-congressmen-confronted-over-israels-history-of-propping-up-hamas\/1444414\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Pro-Israel Congressmen Confronted Over Israel’s History Of Propping-Up Hamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch: Pro-Israel Congressmen Confronted Over Israel’s History Of Propping-Up Hamas<\/span><\/p>\n

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Submitted by Decensored News<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cFor years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it\u2019s blown up in our faces.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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So read an op-ed headline<\/a> in The Times of Israel<\/em> by Israeli journalist and political correspondent Tal Schneider on October 8, one day after Hamas\u2019s deadly incursion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premier\u2019s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from<\/strong>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Schneider was far from the only one to draw attention to this sordid history as the Israel government rushed to declare war on Hamas and begin their slaughter in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince he took office as prime minister a second time,\u201d wrote<\/a> Dmitry Shumsky for Israel\u2019s Haaretz<\/em> on October 11, \u201cNetanyahu developed and advanced a destructive, warped political doctrine that held that strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority would be good for Israel.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

While statements like these\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and the fact that they\u2019re made so matter-of-factly in top Israeli newspapers \u2013 may come as a major surprise to many American news consumers who hadn\u2019t followed the Israel-Palestine conflict closely prior to October 7, Israel\u2019s role in propping up Hamas has been reported for years by the likes of UPI<\/em> (\u201cIsrael gave major to aid to Hamas<\/a>\u201c), The Wall Street Journal<\/em> (\u201cHow Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas<\/a>\u201c), and others.<\/p>\n

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The policy has also been repeatedly elucidated<\/a> by Israel officials<\/a>, including Finance Minister Bezelal Smotrich<\/a> and, reportedly, Netanyahu himself<\/a>, as documented in depth<\/a> by writers Scott Horton and Connor Freeman.<\/p>\n

In light of this, journalist Liam Cosgrove<\/strong> ventured to Capitol Hill recently with a couple queries for pro-Israel Congressmen: First and foremost, are they even aware of this basic historical fact? And second, shouldn\u2019t it have a bearing on their decision to send billions of dollars to the very government that helped strengthen Hamas in the first place?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

These should have been pretty straightforward questions (to which one would hope the answers would be \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cyes\u201d). However, as seen in the video above, they were treated as anything but by staunchly \u201cpro-Israel\u201d congressmen Dan Crenshaw<\/strong>, Byron Donalds<\/strong>, August Pfluger<\/strong>, and Juan Ciscomani<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Congressman Dan Crenshaw: \u201cBy the very nature of funding and training [Hamas] for decades, [Oct 7] is clearly Iran\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

Me: What about Netanyahu\u2019s decades-long funding of Hamas?<\/p>\n

Crenshaw: *Slams car door* pic.twitter.com\/XIGFKWGG3i<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) December 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

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The evasiveness displayed by Crenshaw<\/strong> (R-TX), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, stands out as particularly noteworthy. Besides telling<\/a> Fox News<\/em> that it\u2019s \u201ccrazy\u201d to be concerned about Palestinian civilians \u201ccaught in the crossfire\u201d of Israel\u2019s bombardment because \u201cthey support Hamas!\u201d and \u201cwant a terrorist government,\u201d Crenshaw has said<\/a> of the October 7 attack:<\/p>\n

By the very nature of funding and training this proxy force for decades, it\u2019s clearly Iran\u2019s fault. So whether Iran has direct involvement in this particular operation is another question. But Iran created Hamas. . . . So it\u2019s, it\u2019s\u2014 they are one and the same, effectively. Doesn\u2019t mean they always operate exactly in unison, but they are one and the same, because they\u2019ve been funding and training them for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you aware that Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government were funding and propping up Hamas\u2026?\u201d Cosgrove asked him.<\/p>\n

Despite agreeing to take a question seconds earlier, Crenshaw cut him off before he could finish and refused to answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you familiar with that? That they were propping up Hamas and funding them, prior to October 7th?\u201d Cosgrove repeated as Crenshaw climbed into the passenger side of a pickup truck and shut the door in his face.<\/p>\n

Ciscomani<\/strong> (R-AZ), a member of the House Abraham Accords Caucus, was similarly unwilling to comment. He initially seemed taken aback by the question and asked Cosgrove to repeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna give you a comment on that,\u201d he replied after hearing it again.<\/p>\n

Donalds and Pfluger were more willing to engage, but pleaded ignorance while reavowing their support for Israel.<\/p>\n

Donalds<\/strong> (R-FL) said during an interview<\/a> on November 18 that \u201cto argue for ceasefires\u201d or \u201cthe plight of the Palestinian people when the political group that they elected and keep in power fomented and executed a heinous terrorist attack\u201d is \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you familiar with the reports that Benjamin Netanyahu, over the years, has been actively funding Hamas?\u201d asked Cosgrove.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m not aware of the report,<\/strong>\u201d Donalds said.<\/p>\n

Cosgrove explained that the reports (plural) have been published in papers like Haaretz<\/em> and The Time of Israel<\/em>, while Donalds said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t do hot takes\u201d and needs to \u201cread it\u201d before commenting.<\/p>\n

\u201cShouldn\u2019t you have read that before sending 14 billion dollars of American taxpayer money over there?\u201d asked Cosgove.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo support our greatest ally in the region when they were attacked?\u201d replied Donalds. \u201cWe would always do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfluger<\/strong>, too, said that he had \u201cnot seen that report.\u201d When Cosgrove noted that Netanyahu is openly being criticized in Israeli papers for the policy, the Republican lawmaker replied that he hadn\u2019t \u201cseen a credible report on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After some more back and forth, Pfluger said he wasn\u2019t \u201cgoing to debate\u201d Cosgrove about it. \u201cIf you wanna listen to an answer, I\u2019ll give you an answer,\u201d he said, before talking about how the US\u2019s support for Israel is \u201cmuch more important\u201d than \u201cjust defeating Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a statement against Iran,\u201d he said in part. \u201cIt\u2019s a statement that will be received by Xi Jinping.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more reporting like this, please\u00a0follow Decensored News<\/a>\u00a0on your favorite social media platforms and bookmark\u00a0the website<\/a>. Thank you for your interest and support<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 12\/17\/2023 – 14:35<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/watch-pro-israel-congressmen-confronted-over-israels-history-propping-hamas<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch: Pro-Israel Congressmen Confronted Over Israel’s History Of Propping-Up Hamas Submitted by Decensored News, \u00a0\u201cFor years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it\u2019s blown up in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1444414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1444414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1444414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1444414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1444414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}