Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long held an anti-war stance, but he told Newsmax on Thursday it is important for the U.S. to fully support Israel as it fights to eradicate Iranian-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip and rescue hostages taken in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
"We need to support Israel; this is a defensive war," Kennedy told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "Israel was attacked. I am against war. All the wars that we fought in the last 100 years — with one exception, World War II — were immoral wars. They were wars of choice.
"This war is a moral war because Israel was attacked. Not only on Oct. 7 but for 16 years prior to that, when Gaza was controlled by Hamas, and Hamas had declared war on Israel, was bombarding it on average with 2,000 missiles a year on its civilian populations."
Kennedy said he is pro-Palestinian and not a fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding the best course for a bright future for Palestinians is to get rid of Hamas, which has ruled over Gaza since 2006.
"Hamas is a corporate kleptocracy," Kennedy said. "The top leadership has stolen billions of dollars from the Palestinian people. Ismail Haniyeh, who is the leader of Hamas, has as a net worth, according to Forbes, of $5 billion. The two other leaders collectively have a net worth of $11 billion.
"They've used the billions of dollars that have been sent to the Palestinian people, ... put it in their own pockets and used the rest of it to buy bombs, to build 300 miles of tunnels to attack Israel. Hamas has in its charter that it is against the laws of Islam to negotiate with Israel, that there is no outcome other than the total annihilation of Israel. I don't know of any nation in the world that would have any choice but to try to get rid of Hamas. Israel needs our support on that issue."
Kennedy said if he were president, he would try to work with other nations such as Egypt, Turkey, Russia, China, and those that are part of the Abraham Accords, as well as the U.N. Security Council, to isolate Hamas.
"The problem is that the world has isolated Israel and left Israel with no choice but violence," Kennedy said. "We're all heartbroken by the plight of the people in Gaza. I have friends in Gaza. I have many friends who are Palestinians. I have a friend, family in Gaza right now that I'm supporting who is living in this terrible situation.
"We are all heartbroken about that. But if you look at Israel's choices ... every cease-fire that it has signed with Hamas in the past five cease-fires, and each time Hamas used that to regroup, to rearm, to hoist the banner, and then attack Israel again. If the Palestinians are going to have hope for their future, if they're going to have a prosperous country, if they're going to have the freedoms that are enjoyed in Israel, the only way to do that is to get rid of Hamas."
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