Nikki Haley Calls for No Restraint by Israel Against Hamas
GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley called for the total annihilation of Hamas and advised Israel to employ no restraint in their response to the terrorists in Gaza.
Haley appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity Thursday to urge Americans to stand strong in the face of the inevitable pressure to force Israel to pull back on a strong response to the Palestinian terror attacks.
The former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. posted a video clip of the interview and wrote, “Mark my words: When Israel moves into Gaza, people will call for Israel to exercise ‘restraint.'”
Haley added, “Hamas showed NO restraint when it slaughtered innocent Israelis. Hamas is evil & must be eradicated. We must stand with Israel—not just when it is hit, but also when it hits back.”
Mark my words: When Israel moves into Gaza, people will call for Israel to exercise “restraint.”
Hamas showed NO restraint when it slaughtered innocent Israelis.
Hamas is evil & must be eradicated. We must stand with Israel—not just when it is hit, but also when it hits back. pic.twitter.com/T9t6dC57PN
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 13, 2023
During her Fox News segment, Haley, who was one of the first Republicans to jump into the race for the White House, noted that she has been delivering this same warning for years.
She had more to say than was seen in the clip she posted to her social media account on X, too.
“Five years ago I gave a speech at the UN and that speech talked about the fact that … I had worked with the Israelis and they had maps and those maps were from Hamas,” she said. “And Hamas basically had these maps that said if they were able to get past the barrier, these were the quickest, easiest ways to get into the Israeli communities to kill as many Jews as they could. And what I said then was, we have to make sure that we never let them get across that barrier.
“Now, I have actually been in Israel and seen the tunnels,” the former South Carolina governor continued. “I’ve been on the border of Lebanon and seen the 130,000 rockets looking back at Israel. I’ve been on the border of Gaza. I’ve been in at Aida refugee camp. I’ve actually seen how the Palestinians live. I looked at the buildings and saw the graffiti that said, ‘Kill the Jews,’ ‘Hate the Jews.’ I’ve worked with organizations that the UN funds that — I stopped U.S. funding — that would actually have textbooks, and they would have math problems like, ‘If you have five Jews and you kill four Jews, how many Jews are left?'”
She went on, saying, “So, when you hear of anything trying to give sympathy to what is happening in Gaza, don’t listen to it, because I’ve been there, I’ve been in those tunnels. Where do they put those tunnels? What do they put in those tunnels? They put equipment, they put ammunition, they hide hostages, and that’s where they hide to try and do harm to Israel.
“And where are those tunnels? They put them under schools, under hospitals, because they know Israelis value life, and when you look at what happened the other day, how horrific it was when they were dragging bodies around the streets, what were they saying? ‘Death to Israel, death to America.’ That’s what we’re dealing with. That’s why we have to eliminate Hamas,” she said.
It is true that Haley has been ringing this alarm bell for years. In her May 2018 speech to the United Nations Security Council, Haley warned that the Palestinian terrorists were already planning to breach Israel’s border barriers to launch an attack on the country.
At the time, she warned that “Hamas maps and social media show the fastest routes to reach Israeli communities in case demonstrators make it through the security fence.” And she added then that Israel must “finish” Hamas, the National Review reported.
Haley continued along that theme on Thursday with Sean Hannity.
“We have to completely eliminate Hamas. But what I want the American people to remember is, we’ve seen the images, and as horrific as they are and, as heartbreaking as all of this is, we are saying right now, ‘eliminate Hamas,'” she said emphatically.
Then she warned about the coming calls for “restraint.”
“I can tell you — because it happened all the time at the UN — when they start that ground game, when Israel starts to move in to eliminate Hamas further, you’re going to have all these other countries, and you’re going to have Americans say, you need to show constraint, you need to be able to pull back,” she said.
“No, they need to eliminate Hamas,” Haley insisted. “We are supporting Israel now because they’ve been hit, but the more important part is, we have to support them when they hit back as well, don’t tell them to stop. They saw too much death, they saw too much destruction, and Hamas will do it again.”
“We have to eliminate them, regardless of how they try and intimidate us, and we have to remember, the reason we have Israel’s back is because it’s not that that Israel needs America; America needs Israel. They’re the front line of defense to this jihad terrorism. And that the next thing they want is America, and we should never be so arrogant to think that we don’t need friends,” Haley concluded.
It is certainly a bold stance by Haley, but one she has stood by for years. One wonders, though, whether that tough stance will lead to American boots-on-the-ground involvement in the conflict.
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