Chris Murphy: Israel Has a Right to Defend Itself, But the Cost Is Just Too High

EXCERPT:

MURPHY: "I think it is necessary idea. I’m glad that the president is putting that on the table, both in a private conversation and through his public readout of the meeting. Listen, I agree with President Biden. Hamas needs to be dislodged from Gaza. Israel has a right to defend itself. I believe that from the very beginning. But this cost is just too high talking about 13.000 children who died in this conflict. Gaza is on the brink of famine. And our own terrorism experts in the United States are representing that this conflict will have what they call a generational impact on terrorism. That doesn’t mean it will be a generational setback for terrorism. What they are saying is that terrorist recruiters are out there having great success, bringing people into the fold using the high level of civilian death as a recruiting tool. So, this is a moment where I think the United States need to use all of the leverage it has to try to get Israel to change its strategy. It doesn’t mean ending the campaign to find and capture or kill the remaining Hamas leaders. It means tactics that are much less permissive of civilian death, counter terrorism operations that are more surgical in nature and I would argue an immediate pause on military operations just to make sure we can stem the humanitarian nightmare that is spreading throughout Gaza."