Ted Cruz Grilled on Israel ‘Killing So Many Civilians’ in Gaza: ‘Why Are They So Bad At Their Targeting?’
The Intercept’s Ryan Grim grilled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on the number of civilian deaths in Gaza on Wednesday and questioned why Israeli forces were “so bad at their targeting” after Cruz insisted that the Israeli military did “not target civilians.”
During the Breaking Points interview, Grim condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel before reading Cruz a list of quotes from Israeli officials and politicians calling for maximum destruction in Gaza.
“There is one and only solution, which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it. I mean destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima, without nuclear weapons,” read Grim in one quote from former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin.
After Grim asked Cruz, “Would you join us in condemning that as well?” the senator replied, “I condemn nothing the Israeli government is doing.”
Cruz continued, “The Israeli government does not target civilians, they target military targets,” to which Grim replied, “Why are they so bad at their targeting then, if they’re killing so many civilians?”
“So they’re actually not,” claimed Cruz.
Grim shot back, “So then they are targeting?”
“No,” Cruz insisted, before claiming, “I can tell you there is no military on the face of the planet, including the US military, that goes to the lengths that the Israeli military does to avoid civilian casualties.”
“But the IDF said, ‘Our focus is on damage, not on precision,'” Grim noted, to which Cruz responded, “Yes, damage to Hamas. Damage to Hamas, to terrorists, and I am all for it.”
The back-and-forth continued:
Grim: No, they have said the opposite. They keep saying that what they’re doing is what they’re intending to do, and here in the United States we say that’s not what they’re doing.
Cruz: That’s simply not true. They are targeting the terrorists.
Grim: Are they lying?
Cruz: No. My focus is on damage, good. Damage Hamas. I want to utterly eliminate Hamas.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, nearly 15,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and war on Hamas since Oct. 7 with the majority of victims being women and children.
On Tuesday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the number of civilian deaths in Gaza and asked whether current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would “continue to ignore” President Joe Biden’s concerns on the issue.
“Whether it’s the Democrats or Republicans, I keep hearing that the IDF needs to be much more careful when it comes to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” said Tapper. “That the IDF needs to use more precision munitions, that the IDF needs to take fewer risks. Even if the conservative estimates are right, with 15,000 killed, even if 5,000 of them are Hamas, that’s still a 2-1 ratio of civilians to Hamas. That’s a lot of civilians who have been killed.”
Bennett replied, “Well, Jake, we’re not magicians. There is no magic way to dramatically reduce collateral damage when Hamas’s deliberate goal, intentional goal is to increase Gaza casualties in order for you to ask me that precise question.”
Watch above via Breaking Points.
