Ted Cruz: "I condemn nothing that the Israeli government is doing”

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The debate in Congress over Israel’s overwhelming response to the October 7 attack by Hamas would look much different today had not a big-money operation, unprecedented in its scope and scale, launched — purging the Democratic Party of some of its toughest critics of the Israeli government and cowing others into silence. 

That operation was organized by AIPAC and an allied super PAC called Democratic Majority for Israel, which was founded by Mark Mellman, a longtime adviser to a top Israeli government official, Yair Lapid, who rose from foreign minister to prime minister, a position he held only briefly before being knocked out by Benjamin Netanyahu. 

That operation, aimed squarely at the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, is the subject of an excerpt from my new book I just published at The Intercept. 

The book is called “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution,” and it’s officially out on Tuesday, December 5, so if you order it now, you’ll get it by then. Some bookstores already have it in the back, and if you ask for it they should be able to sell it now.

Meanwhile, this morning on “Counter Points,” my show co-hosted by Emily Jashinsky, we had on Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. He was there to promote his new book, and I joked at the end of the segment that viewers should actually buy mine instead to knock him off the bestseller list next week. The interview itself wasn’t a joke, however, as we focused mostly on his unconditional support for Israel. I couldn’t find anything he would condemn, up to and including the use of nuclear weapons on Gaza. 

Cruz: “Members of the Squad have tweeted out, ‘From the river to the sea.’ But the answer — I’d allow them to say it but I wouldn’t sit there quietly. I would point out that you are calling for, once again, the extermination of millions of Jews.”

Me: “As I’m sure that you know, though, in Likud’s platform, it says, ‘From the river to the sea, there will only be Israeli sovereignty.’ Are they suggesting genocide of all Palestinians?”

“Of course not.”

“Exactly, so if they’re not, why is the other suggesting genocide?”

“Because that’s what Hamas supports.”

“That’s just restating it.”

“Hold on, let me say, yesterday morning I started the day by watching a 46-minute video of the actual atrocities that Hamas committed.” He then described in vivid detail the atrocities Hamas carried out. 

After we all rightly condemned them, I asked if we could attempt to find some moral common ground, and I read Cruz a list of genocidal rhetoric from Israeli officials, like Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter’s comment that “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba … Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it’ll end,” or Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu saying that a nuclear bomb is “one of the possibilities” being considered against Gaza.

“Would you join us in condemning that as well?”

"I condemn nothing that the Israeli government is doing," he said. "The Israeli government does not target civilians, they target military targets." 

Our exchange from there:

"Why are they so bad at their targeting then, if they're killing so many civilians?"

"So they're actually not."

"So then they are targeting civilians?"

"No ... I can tell you there is no military on the face of the planet, including the U.S. military, that goes to the lengths that the Israeli military goes to avoid civilian casualties."

"But the IDF says their focus is on damage, not on precision."

"Yes, damage to Hamas, to terrorists."

"No, they have said the opposite. They keep saying that what they're doing is what they're intending to do, yet here in the Unites States we say that's not what they're doing."

"That's simply not true. They are targeting the terrorists."

"Are they lying?"

"No. My focus is on damage. Good, damage Hamas." 

The full, outrageously maddening interview is here.