the international crisis between Israel and Hamas is spilling into communities across New Jersey as both pro-israel and pro Palestinian groups hold demonstrations and speak out about a rise in harassment and hate speech against each side in North Jersey tensions erupted after the city councils in Anglewood and tenek approved resolutions standing in solidarity with Israel and Israeli victims resulting in arrests and public meetings being shut down the situation in the Middle East now being described as catastrophic Israel's military says it carried out a targeted raid with tanks in the northern Gaza Strip overnight as quote part of preparations for the next stages of combat following prime minister Benjamin netanyahu's indication that a ground invasion is imminent in response to the October 7th attacks by Hamas meanwhile the main United Nations agency helping Palestinians trapped in the besieged city say they'll have to Halt operations if fuel isn't delivered calling it the end of a Lifeline for civilians officials in Gaza say more than 7,000 people have been killed upwards of 18,000 injured the majority civilians women and children pressure is building on the US and the International Community to get desperately needed Aid into Gaza and many countries are advocating for a ceasefire or humanitarian pause in the fighting for more on that I'm joined by New Jersey congresswoman Mikey Cheryl who sits on the house armed services committee congresswoman Cheryl uh good to see you thank you for joining me the president has put forward a massive Aid package for Congress to approve both for Israel and Ukraine uh some of that money is for humanitarian Aid where do you stand on the package and the sheer amount uh it is and the fact that uh humanitarian Aid has been slow to get into govern yeah I think it's a really important package um it has Aid to Ukraine to Israel humanitarian Aid to Gaza uh with the humanitarian crisis there as well as um work on our own us defense manufacturing base and our own Munitions to keep the United States secure the problems s you know really Remains the far-right extremists in the house who want to block um among other things Aid to Ukraine so do you see it getting hung up uh preventing from prevented from being passed well as we'll probably get into we have a new speaker and uh he has been up to this point very very aligned with the far-right EXT extremist in his conference so for example um not voting to pay our debts not voting to keep the government open um in fact voting against both of those things V voting against Ukrainian Aid and then pretty pretty extreme in a way that's concerning to me on some of the social issues I am really hopeful that now that he is in leadership that the moment will be you know that he will understand this moment we are in in this country and what we have to do uh to ensure that we are strong and resilient and supporting the values here in this country well since you you brought it up let's stay on that for a moment um what type of governing do you expect from representative Johnson you know I am not sure what to expect I am I I am very hopeful that we can come to a better place because I'll tell you his history would lead one to expect a failure in governance um and certainly what we've seen over the past uh several weeks has been a complete failure of the GOP to be able to to get to a point where they can govern their party is so divided and some members who are incredibly extreme and out of step with the American people seem to have the lead in how they're moving forward well the first action he took was to bring a resolution to the floor in support of Israel condemning Hamas last time we spoke with you I know you said that you would not sign on uh to a letter urging a ceasefire where do you stand on that now you know I think where we have to be as a country um who is supporting the fight against tamas is to be incredibly thoughtful about what that means and how best to move forward um we we have learned hard lessons about counterinsurgencies we have learned hard lessons about fighting terrorism and I I think that we have to be very thoughtful about how we move forward how we align with our Democratic Values how we make sure we are um protect ing civilians how we make sure we are getting humanitarian Aid to civilians and so to be clear a more thoughtful approach but you would not support a ceasefire at this point so I'm right now I'm working hard with our allies on moving forward um and if there is a a time when different legislation comes forward that I think will help in that effort I will consider it um I am again my number one consideration is how we ensure that Israel remains secure but that we also ensure that we have a better outcome for the civilians in Palestine or the Palestinian civilians congresswoman Mikey Cheryl thank you so much for your time thank you