turning to the conflict in the Middle East Israeli forces are under intense pressure to prove long-standing claims that hospitals in Gaza served as Hamas hideouts which the military says is justification for targeting the facilities especially the alifa hospital the IDF took control of on Wednesday gaza's Health Ministry says thousands of civilians are inside either Sheltering or as patients and their lives are in immediate Jeopardy the White House has so far said it believes intelligence showing Hamas used the hospital as a base but Israel's ability to back that claim could be key to whether it continues getting International support in the response to the October 7th attack by Hamas one of Israel's staunchest us Congressional allies is New Jersey representative Chris Smith who says Israel's right to defend itself is absolute and he joins me now representative Smith it's good to have you on the show I want to ask you about uh the stand on humanitarian pauses the Biden Administration for what I believe is the first time abstained from a vote uh with the UN Security Council looking at a potential extended humanitarian pause um prior to that as you know the Administration has blocked those efforts at what point or will there be a point where yourself and other members of Congress see a need for a pause in this fighting to get more humanitarian Aid there well Brianna I wish the administration would have vetoed that I mean right now we know beyond any reasonable doubt that Hamas wants this in order to redeploy their forces to strengthen in certain areas to further ascertain where the IDF is operating in order to hit back even harder they are the ones who are putting the Palestinians at risk they're the ones who took the hostages and have have killed so many people particularly on October 7th in a unprovoked horrific Act of savagery you know when you get their own leaders the Hamas leaders saying over and over again we're going to keep doing this over and over and over again to kill Jews and to end the state of Israel you were a participant in the march in DC on the National Mall there hundreds of thousands of folks what is your message um and why did you participate uh thank you for that question I um I I participated I I do co-chair the anti-Semitism caucus uh and I work on I actually created the law that created the special Envoy uh for combating anti-Semitism as an ambassador at large uh Deborah lipat was one of the speakers I created that position through a piece of my legislation uh and and I we stand the message is we stand with the Israelis uh they are a democracy uh they are a country that that believes in religious freedom uh that do proc process of law U they have a supreme court that's very active they you know the branches have checks and balances uh and the Jewish people uh it's their Homeland but it is open to others as well who are non-jews whether it be Muslim or Christian Unfortunately they face an adversary that wants to wipe them off the face of the Earth uh so we have to stand in my humble opinion with Israel every step of the way do you feel Congressman that that that Israel is following the international laws on war given the civilian death toll I do and I do it very emphatically you know you look at wars in the past when when the Nazis uh attacked us or you know attacked Europe of course starting with Poland and when um you know the Imperial Japan attacked us we did a response that was designed to end that cruelty and that Menace to Society um they're sadly and regrettably are going to be some civilian deaths when your opponent in this case a group of thugs and terrorists hide behind human Shields of women and children and that's what they're doing do you think that the line has been blurred for folks especially in the west uh between Palestinians and Palestinian civilians of course we all know the majority of whom are under the age of 18 and Hamas well I think what's happened you know they did win by an election um in back in what 2005 six sure most the folks who live there now you know were were too young to vote in but yes I know but they never they never had another election and they never will um and and what they'll do is just keep teaching the Next Generation uh to kill in their Charter of 1988 they have one section where they say you know even the rocks and the and the flowers will CL you know will cry out there's a Jew hiding behind me uh come and kill him uh I mean that is that's sick that and they're teaching kids this as part of their Hamas Dogma uh and and you know I've read the whole thing several times they even talk about a peace conference as being antithetical uh to anything dealing with Islam and that's that's a total perversion of the Islamic faith uh you know not to treat people with respect Congressman Chris Smith is Chairman of the subcommittee on Foreign Affairs human rights and Global Health Congressman thank you so much thank you so very much for having me 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