Dan Abrams Urges Pro-Israel Jews to ‘Turn Up the Heat’ on Netanyahu to Help Starving Gazans

 

Dan Abrams, the founder and owner of Mediaite, said it was “time for pro-Israel folks, including Jews” to “speak out” in response to the news reports coming out of Gaza, and “turn up the heat” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Photos, videos, eyewitness accounts from doctors and nurses, and other reporting have detailed the starvation crisis in Gaza, with numerous analysts viewing the situation as growing even more dire in recent weeks, and calls to pressure Netanyahu have come from both sides of the political aisle.

The images from Gaza were “startling, upsetting, ugly, bad,” said Abrams, “but it’s also bad for Israel in every way.” He denounced the apparent strategy of doing “anything and everything to hurt Hamas, even if in the process it also hurts civilians,” as counterproductive and “also hurts Israel.”

“And that is why pro-Israel folks, including pro-Israel Jews, need to turn up the heat on Netanyahu,” he urged.

Abrams made a distinction that he was “not talking about the lefty Jews who’ve been criticizing Israel since day one,” the Jews who “hate Israel despite being Jewish,” and instead meant people like him and his family.

“I love Israel. My mother’s Israeli,” he said. “I know Israel doesn’t get a fair shot on the international stage. I regularly defend them. But now the Netanyahu government is proving their usually dishonest critics right.”

Israel should continue “hunting Hamas leaders and terrorists,” but “now, almost 2 years after the [October 7th]  attacks, the Israeli created situation in Gaza with the lack of food needs to end,” and therefore they “can still allow the basics to come into Gaza while continuing to fight to degrade Hamas.”

The “reality,” Abrams continued, was that there was “no such thing as completely destroying Hamas,” calling such suggestions “rhetorical nonsense.” Israel was “so dominant militarily” and had already “done a pretty good job” of “degrading” Hamas’ power and support, including taking out a number of key leaders of the terrorist group.

Furthermore, Netanyahu was fighting multiple charges of bribery, fraud, and other alleged corruption, and Abrams said he did “worry that the specter of that case and the possibility that Netanyahu could go to prison is leading him to delay as long as possible because he wants to make sure that there is no new election.”

“Don’t be fooled by the all or nothing options,” Abrams said. “You can do both. You can continue to try to degrade Hamas while not starving the people there,” adding that Netanyahu was “just not telling the truth” and adding “fuel to that fire when he tries to tell us do not believe what you are seeing and he denies that there’s a problem, there is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza.”

It was time, Abrams urged, to pressure Netanyahu, “not so Hamas gets a pass…but so kids don’t unnecessarily die and so Israel doesn’t further hurt itself both with the American and international public.”

“In my view, Israel is usually on the right side. But not here,” Abrams concluded. “And that is why we, the United States, as well as Israel-supporting Jews in particular, need to say ‘Enough is enough.’ Need to say ‘You need to do more to fix this.'”

“There has to be a way.”

Watch the video above via YouTube.

Tune into The Dan Abrams Show live on SiriusXM at 2pm-3pm ET on POTUS 124.

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Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.