Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday harshly criticized Vice President Kamala Harris as both "naive" on Tehran and soft on Hamas.
The Arkansas Republican told "Fox News Sunday" that the policy of the Democrat presidential candidate toward Israel since the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped to Gaza some 250 others is "just an example of how she's unprepared to be the commander in chief."
Cotton, who serves on the Senate Intelligence, Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, said that Harris immediately takes "at face value Hamas' claims about the number of people killed and what they were doing," even though the death toll in Gaza is reported by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry and does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties.
Cotton explained that "Israel has to strike on occasion at places like hospitals and schools, because Hamas uses them for command and control or to fire mortars and rockets. There are civilian casualties in Gaza, no doubt, but those are solely the responsibility of Hamas, not Israel."
However, Cotton emphasized that, despite this, "Kamala Harris, like Joe Biden ... have put more pressure on Israel than they put on Hamas from the very beginning."
He also condemned Harris, who as vice president presides over the Senate, for joining 128 Democrat members of Congress in not attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to both chambers last month.
"She refused to preside over the joint session, her only constitutional duty as president of the Senate, she refused to have a meeting in public with [Netanyahu, although she did meet with him in private], and she came out and again blamed Israel for the civilian casualties in Gaza, only emboldening Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists," Cotton said. "And what did you have two days later? Hezbollah, another Iranian-baked terrorist [organization] shot rockets to Israel and blew up children playing ball at a playground.
Cotton reiterated that "Kamala Harris is naive, and she's not prepared to be the commander in chief."
He added that even though Harris did say Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorists, "then she immediately says 'but. ...' And what comes after the 'but' with Kamala Harris is always implying that Israel is responsible for all the civilian suffering in Gaza, not Hamas, that Israel is the one being provocative when it's waging a defensive war after the Oct. 7 atrocity and that Israel is the one that should pull in its horns, as opposed to supporting Israel and standing strong against Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist throughout the region."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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