Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has stated that people need to be an “aggressive listener” amid the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
Swalwell described how many areas of the United States are seeing a rise of both Islamophobia and antisemitism, noting that there is “nothing easy about this high-wire act” of defeating Hamas and protecting innocent lives in both Israel and Gaza. The lawmaker has seen an increase in Islamophobia in his own district, and that antisemitism is at a “peak” in the United States, he said on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki.
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“You can do all of that, you can say Hamas is a terrorist state, you can say Israel should protect against innocent life, you can be pro-Palestinian, anti-Hamas, and pro-Jewish state, and against the leadership of Israel right now, and not be contradictory,” Swalwell said. “As I say, you have to be an aggressive listener right now, and I think we’ll all be better off, and the policy would be better if that’s the approach we take.”
Swalwell went on to state that President Joe Biden has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try and minimize casualties among civilians in the country’s war against Hamas, noting that people should ask “what would the alternative be” in regards to criticism some have given Biden over his leadership in this conflict.
The California Democrat predicted that if former President Donald Trump were currently president, the U.S. and Israel would be in “a World War III scenario” with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
“President Biden has not sent a single American into the conflict, but he is now pulling American hostages out of the conflict,” Swalwell said. “We’re supporting Israel, we’re getting aid into the region. So far we’ve held off other enemies of Israel and America, that’s why President Biden was elected, and that’s why I think he needs to be given the room to negotiate what is ultimately the resolution of this conflict.”
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Hamas released 17 of its hostages on Sunday during a temporary ceasefire that commenced on Friday. Among the hostages released was Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old American-Israeli girl whose parents were killed in the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
Biden has confirmed in remarks that Edan’s “free, and she’s in Israel now.” He added that he is “hopeful” that other Americans would be released soon.
