Democratic congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut spoke out Tuesday against his progressive colleagues’ recent call for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas, telling “CNN This Morning” that “I understand the instinct” but “it’s not realistic and it’s not right.”
“It’s an ugly world out there, and you can’t have been brutalized the way the Israelis have been brutalized and say, ‘Guys, take a deep breath and don’t do anything about this,’” he said.
Speaking with CNN’s morning coanchors Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly, Himes explained why he disagrees with the members of the Democratic caucus in calling a cease-fire in Israel following the Hamas attacks, additionally comparing the move to asking Americans to cease-fire on Sept. 12, 2001, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“I understand the instinct, particularly when you’re talking about as densely populated an area as Gaza, there’s just no way to conduct war in a place like Gaza, we learned this in Iraq in places like Fallujah, in a sanitary way. It just can’t be done,” Himes said. “So I understand the instinct, but calling for a cease-fire is like calling for the United States to stand down and do a cease-fire on September 12, 2001.”
Harlow asked Himes to clarify what was not right, asking if he meant it was not right to call for a cease-fire.
“To say you should not respond militarily to a terrorist attack that killed well in excess of 1,000 of your people,” Himes answered. “I understand the instinct. Look, people who take — who remind us how horrible war is, I will never say that those people are absolutely wrong. We always need that voice. But when you have been brutalized the way we were on 9/11 or the way the Israelis were, you go to war.”
On Monday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among 13 progressive representatives to sign a resolution urging President Joe Biden to call for an “immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine” and to send humanitarian aid to Gaza. The resolution was led by Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, André Carson of Indiana, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Delia Ramirez of Illinois and came in response to the nearly 3,000 Palestinian deaths seen since Israel counterattacked Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
President Biden also announced he would travel to Israel Monday night. This is the second time Biden will visit an active war zone after traveling to Ukraine in February 2022.
“What President Biden is doing is the same thing that two aircraft carrier strike groups, a couple of air wings, a couple of very clear statements by the Secretary of State is doing, which is telling Iran and Iran’s client Hezbollah to stay out,” Himes said of the announcement. “Nothing says stay out quite as much as the President’s presence on the ground. Along with supporting the Israelis, and trying to identify the location of the hostages. That’s probably their top priority right now. This is a bad situation to begin with. Were Hezbollah to come across the border and start launching missiles, that would be a massive escalation.”
Watch Himes’ full “CNN This Morning” interview in the video above.
