U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin denied Israel is committing genocide in Gaza on Tuesday when pressed on the matter by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
Israel’s military has come under attack from its regional neighbors, as well as far-left protesters across the globe, for its response and its ongoing war against Islamic terrorism.
Hamas planned and executed the deadliest terror attacks in Israel’s history on Oct. 7 last year.
Those attacks left more than 1,200 Israeli civilians dead.
As part of the ongoing campaign to destroy the group, the Israeli Defense Forces have spent months targeting Hamas — which is known for using civilians as human shields.
Many non-combatants have been killed in the urban fighting.
The response and collateral damage on the battlefield have led to accusations that Israel, U.S. leadership and the Pentagon are all responsible for what has been called a genocide in the Gaza Strip.
During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reuters reported, Austin was asked by Cotton, “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?”
Austin replied, “Senator Cotton, I — we don’t have any evidence of genocide.”
Watch:
.@SenTomCotton: “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?” @SecDef Austin: “We don’t have any evidence of genocide.” pic.twitter.com/7T2ToKyI0X
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 9, 2024
Cotton responded, “So that’s a no. Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza?”
“We don’t have evidence of that,” Austin affirmed.
The Arkansas Republican then reminded Austin that an element of anti-Semitic protesters are currently blaming him personally for what is claimed to be the systemic killing of Palestinians.
Cotton asked Austin directly if he would like to address those protesters.
Austin said, “We committed to help assist Israel in defending its territory and its people by providing security assistance.”
Austin concluded he personally believed the Oct. 7 attacks were “absolutely horrible.”
Cotton then pressed Austin as to whether he would address people who are accusing him of helping to kill innocent people.
“So, you deny the accusation that you greenlit genocide?” Cotton asked.
“I absolutely deny it,” Austin responded.
As Newsweek noted, Austin’s home was the target of a massive protest by anti-Israeli protesters on Christmas Day.
The sad reality is our Nations’ interests do not complete against “Woke” valued concepts! Our National security and sovereignty should be our foremost goals but instead the Democratic socialist have made the goal a rush to get them registered to vote and to vote for them. So far 11 million and the monthly flights brought in 300,00 more for last year! They are flying and bussing them into various cities in various states, will that change the numbers of representatives that a state gets, in both the House and the Senate at both federal and State levels? Therefore I smell a fishy scent in the air!
Here is how I see it. Israel needs to flood the tunnels with gasoline and light them up, when the smoke and heat forces hamas to poke their heads out of the tunnels play whacko mole. We now know all the hostages are either dead or have been sold off as sex slaves to other terrorists organizations so there is no reason in the world to not light the tunnels on fire and let the smoke show them where the exits are. Biden is suck a corrupt puke if he had any brains he would demand that qutar freeze hamas leaderships bank accounts and hand them over or sanction Qutar .