In an interview on the CBS News “Face the Nation” program on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Margaret Brennan that a permanent ceasefire with the Hamas terrorist organization doesn’t make sense.
He added, however, that he thinks Israel is losing the war in the court of public opinion.
“I don’t know how you could have a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, who have said before Oct. 7 and after Oct. 7 that they want to destroy Israel. They want a permanent war,” he said. “I don’t know how you have a permanent ceasefire with an attitude like that.”
So is the war against Hamas justified? Brennan asked. “Israel has the right to defend itself,” Sanders said.
Sanders also referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “right-wing extremist government” and the “horrific damage to human life” in the Gaza Strip.
“It is a humanitarian disaster, and the United States has got to put all of the pressure that it can to tell Netanyahu to stop this disastrous military approach.”
After Sanders cited a number of Palestinians killed without qualifying it, Brennan stated the number of terrorists that Israel said it has killed and noted that the statistic Sanders used came from the Gazan health ministry. She did not note that Hamas controls that entity.
Sanders was asked to speculate what is motivating the Netanyahu government, although Brennan did not add that there is currently an emergency, unity war cabinet in Israel.
“It really is hard to say,” Sanders said. “It may be that they’re responding in rage against the horrific and terrible Hamas attack that killed 1,200 innocent Israelis. Maybe in some of the right extremist minds, there is the goal to drive the Palestinian people off of Gaza completely.”
Sanders cited U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s comment that one can win the battle but lose the war.
“Israel is losing the war in terms of how the world is looking at this situation,” the senator said. “I think that it would be irresponsible for the United States to give Netanyahu another $10 billion to continue to wage this awful war.”
