CNN Newsroom: Interview with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
Interview
"The only thing I can say, Wolf, is it has been a gut-wrenching couple of days I think for everyone who cares deeply about the U.S.-Israel relationship and of course cares about just -- you look at videos like the one you're referencing, of rockets being rained down. Of course young children, women, grandparents, torn from their homes by Hamas terrorists on Shabbos 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, and you realized how critical it is that Israel be given the room to act decisively.
They did not bring this on themselves. This is -- they were attacked by terrorists, Iran-backed terrorists, and now the key is to respond and root out these terrorists.
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I wasn't in that one. I received a classified briefing this morning, so I obviously can't share the content of the classified briefing I received this time. But obviously we've seen what is out there. We've seen the reporting. As you've just mentioned, 700 plus Israelis have been killed. Very focused of course on the hostages. You're looking at 130 that we know of right now including Americans. Americans killed, American hostages.
We -- I think it's critical that Israel be given the room to get those hostages back and that of course those hostages be returned straight away, and in the process protecting democracy and the region, our critical ally, making sure that they have what they need to root out the Hamas terrorists. And we've seen now that it's official that their Iran-backed. Iran was clearly involved in this.
You see this axis of Iran, Russia, China, acting together, so I think we've got to be vigilant here as we act in -- sorry, I should say as Israel acts with our backing in the days ahead.
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Well, as we study the intelligence, we'll understand more but let me say that, you know, given the fact that they've now -- Hamas and Hezbollah and others have admitted that Iran played a role in this, it seems like this attack doesn't just happen overnight. It appears to be coordinated. I assume we'll learn more about that but right now we've got to be vigilant of course about Lebanon in the north and potential attacks from Hezbollah as attacks continue from the south and Hamas. Rockets continue to rain.
All right. So you've got to be very -- we've seen in recent months more coordination from Iran, their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. We've seen Palestinian jihad of course deeply involved in this. So you're seeing much more coordination of these terrorists and their proxies in the last months and they've been pretty public about that coordination. It appears you saw that -- we saw that yesterday directly but it appears that seems to be what's happened, but of course we're going to learn a lot more in the days and weeks ahead.
Right now the number one mission has to be to make sure we back Israel, our key ally in the region, the democracy in the region, and make sure that it can respond, get the hostages out, and of course kill anyone who threatens Israel.
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Actually I think it's critically important we get a speaker as quickly as possible.
And in the short term, Israel has what it needs. You saw the president decisively take action in terms of moving more forces into the region to support Israel against Hamas and any other of the terrorist activity. But, you know, I think we want to act quickly here and I know the Republicans are meeting in their conference I believe tomorrow, and taking action on that front. I think we also need to get the ambassador that's been nominated, Jack Lew, get him approved as quickly as possible. That should be -- I assume the first action coming out of the Senate this week, I hope.
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Thanks, Wolf, and let's pray here because I think it's going to be a tough, tough weeks ahead. But, you know, I think we need to make sure that Israel is given the room to get those hostages including American hostages out, and to act decisively here. Thanks again, Wolf.
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