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Tom Cotton Blisters Hamas Cheerleaders In Senate And Across The Globe

Speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the third-highest ranking GOP senator who serves as the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, delivered a blistering speech in which he denounced critics of Israel around the world and in the U.S. Senate, who he said side with Hamas and propagandize to help the terrorist organization.

“Hamas is on the verge of defeat so it’s cranked up the propaganda machine once again,” he began. “Now Hamas wants the world to believe that Israel has undertaken a campaign of deliberate starvation of the Gazan population, and as usual, Hamas can count on an international media and political chorus to fight their battles for them and try to bully Israel in submission.”

“Israel has helped bring into Gaza approximately 96,000 trucks containing nearly one and a half million tons of food, 46,000 tons of medical supplies, 60,000 tons of water and around 170,000 tons of shelter equipment,” he noted. “Put simply: Children aren’t going hungry because of lack of supplies from Israel; they’re suffering because Hamas uses food and humanitarian aid as a weapon to stay in power.”

Slamming members of the Senate who have used photos of Gazan children to buttress their attacks on Israel, Cotton asserted, “‘Gullible’ might be a charitable way to describe their motives, much like The New York Times buying hook, line, and sinker, the images of Gazan children afflicted with terrible diseases, but passed off as malnourished.” He then displayed photos of the massive amount of pallets of food simply waiting to be distributed to the people of Gaza, noting they are “are sitting and baking in the hot sun instead of feeding hungry kids. While the situation is shocking, it’s not all surprising; after all, Hamas’ infiltration of UN aid mechanisms is well-documented. Time and again, we have seen Hamas terrorists divert shipments to themselves or loot delivery trucks, only to resell the supplies on the black market at outrageous prices. Last year, this terrorist-infiltrated aid system managed by the UN and others allowed Hamas to rake in more than half a billion dollars in profit, profits that fund Hamas’ campaign of terror against Israel and its own people.”

“How critical is this systematic theft to Hamas’ grip on power?” he asked. “Well, one of Hamas’s chief demands in recent cease-fire negotiations has been the dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new charity created specifically to end Hamas’s stranglehold on aid and supplies. The foundation has even offered to distribute UN aid for free, despite the risk to its own people. And much of this aid, which is sitting in the sun and partly taxpayer-funded, is already inside Gaza; it simply needs to be picked up and distributed. But the offer has fallen on deaf ears because Hamas uses humanitarian aid as a tool to fund, facilitate and fight its war against innocent children, against Israel, against the civilized world. And Hamas’s cheerleaders, apologists, and dupes in Europe and America, and sadly, here in the U.S. Senate, once again, turn a blind eye to Hamas’ crimes, blaming instead Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They demand that Israel agree to a cease-fire that preserves and rewards Hamas, while also delivering even more humanitarian aid to Gaza for Hamas to steal and exploit. They expect Israel to feed the very people who attacked, raped, and murdered innocent Israeli men, women, and children on October 7. And I would remind everyone, not a few American victims as well.”

Turning to history, Cotton — who deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq and served in combat units including the 506th Infantry Regiment and the 101st Airborne — commented, “Once again, Israel is facing demands placed on no other nation in the world. I don’t recall from my history lessons, for instance, the United States providing humanitarian aid in Germany and Japan in World War II. On the contrary, the Allies imposed naval blockades that led to widespread shortages in those enemy nations. When in the annals of history has the victim of an unprovoked war of aggression ever been held responsible for the nutrition of the aggressor? Put simply, Israel doesn’t have any responsibility to send a single loaf of bread to Gaza. I wonder why so many senators, pundits, podcasters and European politicians impose this unique standard on the Jewish nation?”

“Why could it be?” he asked bluntly.

“But despite all that, despite the brutal slaughter of nearly 1200 Israelis on October 7, despite Hamas’ continued repression of its own people, Israel is still delivering aid to Gaza while Hamas rips it from the hands of hungry children,” he pointed out. “Once again we see very simply and very clearly in this war who is on the side of justice and who is on the side of evil. And I would ask anyone who places these singular demands on Israel: Whose side do you want to be on? And if you truly care about the children in Gaza, as I do, as Israelis do, as any decent person surely does, I would encourage you to support President Trump’s statement of moral clarity and strength from earlier this morning: ‘The fastest way to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages.’”

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