CNN’s Amanpour Pushes Hard For Blinken to Denounce Israel: ‘Are You Prepared to Say That War Crimes Have Been Committed?’

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour pushed hard to get outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken to denounce Israel for “war crimes” committed during the Gaza War. 

Before leaving office, Blinken has been criticized by progressive activists and media pundits over his relationship and support for Israel following the October 7th attack.

During a recent interview on CNN, Amanpour pressed Blinken over comments made by a former Israeli defense minister that war crimes and “ethnic cleansing” are occurring in Gaza by Israeli soldiers.

Blinken responded that the State Department does have “concerns about the way Israel has conducted itself” but also noted that Hamas is embedded within the civilian population.

AMANPOUR: I’m going to ask you about the Israelis themselves who talk about war crimes. Moshe Ya’alon, the former defense secretary for Netanyahu — not a bleeding heart liberal — ethnic cleansing and war crimes are taking part, and he’s doubled down on that. The truth warriors at Haaretz, who discovered what Israeli soldiers have been saying that they have in the recent past recent present been even considering children who come to a certain area as terrorists, that the brave soldiers from breaking the silence are taking, the confessions of IDF coming back. And you know who Many of them, some of them concerned about what they have been doing. Are you prepared to say that war crimes have been committed by Israel?

BLINKEN I can’t speak to individual instances. I can say obviously we’ve had concerns more than concerns about the way Israel has conducted itself. Understanding first of all, this is a unique environment, one we haven’t really seen before, one where you have a population that’s trapped inside of Gaza. In virtually every other situation in the world, people are able to get out of harm’s way. They become refugees in a neighboring country. That’s not a good thing. But it’s better than being caught in the middle of this kind of maelstrom. Second, uniquely, you have an enemy that intentionally embeds itself within the civilian population in and under apartments, in honor schools, mosques, hospitals. That does not in any way absolve Israel of the responsibility, the obligation to conduct itself according to international law. But it makes it and it makes it much more challenging. So we look at this very, very carefully. Israel looks at this very, very carefully. There are hundreds of cases that are within the Israeli system as we speak.

Those cases, I believe and trust, will move forward to assess exactly what you’ve asked, whether individuals have committed violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, you name it. That’s the nature of the the system. We need to see it obviously come to fruition just as we look intensely at. Any things that are brought to our attention. But the challenge of doing that not only in real time, but doing it in this unique environment, are real. That doesn’t mean we don’t do it we do. But it takes time to get to the facts. The second thing I want to say is this. I more than respect, I deeply value the fact that we have people in this department and in our system who have different views and speak up. Speak out. We have something called a dissent channel in the State Department where people object to a policy we’re pursuing. They can send me a note, a memo, a detailed brief, and it and I see it. I read it. I respond to it. I’ve gotten, I don’t know, a couple of dozen when it comes to Gaza as well as other issues. That is a cherished tradition in this department. And I wanted to make sure that people feel that they can do that. And it’s also affected our our thinking in many cases, including including our actions.

Watch the clip above via CNN.