Congress Warns Obama Not to Push Israel for Ceasefire

Sen. Kirk: Worth Thousands of Lives to Wipe Out Hamas

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip aren’t sitting well with Israeli hawks, and by extension that means they aren’t sitting well with the US Congress.

That’s got Congressional officials up in arms, pushing President Obama to stop trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the conflict, and instead to endorse Israel’s war unconditionally, and irrespective of how bad it gets.

Underscoring just how far they’ll go, Sen. Mark Kirk (R – IL) insisted he was totally comfortable with Israel killing thousands of civilians in the current war if it meant wiping out Hamas, saying it was “worth it.”

Israel is already pushing up against 1,000 dead civilians in the ongoing war, and while they’re not even talking about the idea of wiping out Hamas, they are talking up a long war going forward, meaning Sen. Kirk might get his thousands of dead Gazans, albeit not with the elimination of Hamas to go along with it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.