Antony J. Blinken: “Israel has to do everything it can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Speaking to Margaret Brennan of CBS’s Face the Nation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken referred to “a very clear message from the President, backed up by the deployment of two of our largest aircraft carrier battle groups, to make sure that it’s clear: 

“No one should take advantage of this moment to escalate, to further attacks on Israel, or for that matter attacks on us, on our personnel.  And this is not by way of in terms of what we’re doing by provocation; it’s designed to deter, designed to make clear that no one should use this moment in any way to escalate.”

Concerning Israel’s right to defend itself in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack that left more than 1,400 Israeli citizens – mostly civilians – dead, Secretary Antony J. Blinken had this to say: “No country – no country – can be expected to tolerate this, to live with this.  And as we’ve said from the start, Israel has both the right and even the obligation not only to defend itself but to try to make sure that, to the best of its ability, this can’t happen again.

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Read also: Press Club Brussels: Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brussels questions Israel’s right to defend itself

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“So we’ve talked to the Israelis about what they’re planning.  We give them our best advice.  It’s important, as we’ve said, not only what they do but how they do it, particularly when it comes to making sure that civilians are as protected as they possibly can be in this crossfire of Hamas’s making.

“But in terms of what we’re talking to Israel about in their – with regard to their military operations, it really is focused on both how they do it and how best to achieve the results that they seek”.

He continued: “Israel has to do everything it can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.  Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it’s done sometime in the future.  No country could accept that.”

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