Congressman Michael McCaul speaks out on Israel-Hamas War
HOUSTON - Greg Groogan, Fox Texas Trio - Does the reality you witnessed match what the media is reporting?
Michael McCaul, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman -That's a great question - I would say no.
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Gruesome acts of violence killing 1400 Jewish people, taking 250 individuals hostage, raping, cutting heads off, burning people alive, really awful things. If some of these protesters could see this video, I think they would have a better understanding as to who the victim really is.
Groogan - You spoke with the prime minister. Is there anything else you can tell us about your conversation with him?
McCaul - He said what I need now, what I needed yesterday is ammo, ammo, ammo, and we took that message back. It's not time to play political games with this. They only have a very short period of time, and they will run out of ammo, they will run out of replenishing the Iron Dome. Even when we were there, rockets came in every day from Hezbollah in the north, and you've got about 90 seconds to get into the bunker to survive that. So you know they are fighting for their existence right now and their very survival as a nation, and it's like their 9-11. They also talked a lot about the human shield, that Hamas uses their own people as human shields and the hostages themselves, like in the Al-Shifa hospital, which is basically a military base for Hamas, but it's shielded by their own people that they are willing to allow to get killed to protect their military operation.
Groogan - Chairman, I know you have witnessed the mass demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, what's your take on that and if you could sit down with some of those young people, and they were mostly young people, what would you tell them?
McCaul - I believe social media have been infected, if you will, with disinformation coming from Iran and Russia and China by the way. China controls the algorithms on TikTok, so if you type in Israel or Palestine you are going to get a lot of Pro-Palestinian, Hamas material and videos pop up and that's primarily the source of education for our young people. Hamas is very good at playing the victim card, but the Jewish people have historically been the victim throughout history. In fact, we haven't seen this many Jewish people killed since the Holocaust.
Groogan - There will be members who come to you for advice. How will you be advising, not only members of the Republican caucus, but all members of Congress?
McCaul - You've got this threat from Putin to Ukraine and Europe, also Putin invited Hamas to the Kremlin. He's tied to Chairman Xi in China and you know what happens in Ukraine will impact what happens in Taiwan and obviously affect the Ayatolluh. The Ayatolluh is selling drones to the Russians to kill Ukranians. They are all in this together. I have not seen this unholy alliance materialize quite like it is now with our adversaries, and that is Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. They work in concert together, and they are behind what happened in the Middle East as well. They like the fact that the diversion, in their opinion, from what's happening in Eastern Europe, and it's also a diversion from chairman Xi in Taiwan, and I think it emboldens and empowers them as well.
Groogan - Israel is waging war on Hamas. Are you satisfied that they are doing it in such a manner that minimizes collateral damage?
McCaul - They are circling Gaza City. They are keeping the fuel out so that they eventually have to come out of the tunnels, and then they can eliminate Hamas, rescue hostages and the innocent Palestinian people. I think it's really important to note that Hamas oppresses the Palestinian people. They are not one and the same and I think if you are going to achieve true peace in the Middle East, we have to liberate the Palestinian people from this terror organization, and that is Hamas.