Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas and called for his ouster.
In an interview with MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” on Wednesday, February 7, Clinton said, “When you’re the aggressor, as Hamas was on October 7, what do you do with an aggressor? You have to stop them.”
“I think it’s fair to say Hamas cares nothing about the civilians who are being murdered or killed both by Hamas still in Gaza or through military operations by Israel. The Hamas leaders could not be clearer. Hamas is not doing anything to protect Palestinians.”
She continued, “Netanyahu needs to go; he is not a trustworthy leader. The October 7 attack happened on his watch. He needs to go, if he is an obstacle to a ceasefire, if he is an obstacle to figuring out what to do the next day, then he definitely needs to go.”
After previously expressing her strong support for Israel’s war efforts, she indicated in the interview that “we hope that there will be a ceasefire,” considering that “if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire, there will be a ceasefire.”
In response to a question about US President Joe Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu, she said, “I think Biden did everything he could to respond to the concerns of the Israeli people, but I think it is also clear that Biden is doing everything he can to influence Netanyahu.”
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Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza following a surprise attack by Hamas in Israel, resulting in 27,708 deaths and 67,174 injured, causing massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.