Keller @ Large: Looking at the Israel/Hamas war from a local perspective
BOSTON - The war between Israel and Hamas has been going on for almost a month and in this week's Keller @ Large, Jon Keller is talking with Ambassador Meron Reuben, the Consul General of Israel to New England.
In the first rally for Israel in Boston after the Hamas attacks on Israel, Sen. Ed Markey called for a de-escalation of the current violence and was met with boos. Rep. Ayanna Pressley has repeatedly called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
When asked what he makes of this, Reuben said they don't understand what has been going on.
"You in the United States know, unfortunately, all too well what one person with one gun can do in the mayhem and the murder that can be caused," said Reuben. "Now one has to put into mind what happened on October the 7th when thousands of terrorists with much more than one gun came across and massacred more than 1,400 people on the Israeli side...To immediately call for a ceasefire after something like that is akin to not really understanding what has taken place and what is happening in the region."
Reuben added Israel is now focused on making sure an attack like this never happens again. "You cannot ever ceasefire and expect them, unless they give themselves up, then there's no way we're going to have a ceasefire."
When asked about the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza and whether that will create more terrorists, Reuben said, "There might be truth in that. But at the same time, we have seen the Hamas terrorist group and the Palestinian Islamic jihad terrorist group embed themselves over the last 16 years and fight Israel from inside civilian populations. And we have been calling for over three weeks to the civilian population to move south and a large majority did."
Part 2: Keller @ Large: Looking at the Israel/Hamas war from a local perspective
In part two of their conversation, Keller asks Reuben about what the war means for people living in New England.