In a surprising segment on ABC’s “The View” this week, the normally far-left hosts put the brakes on anti-Israel commentary, blasting Rep. Ilhan Omar and other ‘Squad’ members for shameful rhetoric.
Granted, it was the show’s token so-called conservative, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who raked Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Democrat colleagues over the coals, but her co-hosts did not shut her down as she called out the rush to judgment after Israel was blamed for an airstrike on a hospital in Gaza.
Reports that Israel had launched an airstrike that took out the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza were rebutted by Israeli officials and it was later confirmed that it was actually a failed rocket launch by Palestinian terrorists, but many Democrats did not wait for details, instead lambasting Israel for the explosion.
Members of the far-left ‘Squad’ including Tlaib (D-Mich.), Omar (D-Minn.), and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) joined other voices in condemning Israel.
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib had tweeted, telling President Joe Biden “this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.”
On Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) indicated that his committee “reviewed intelligence” that showed Israel was not responsible.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed intelligence related to the attack on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike,” Warner wrote on X.
Griffin called out the members of Congress for stirring up the anti-Israeli rhetoric and for not apologizing once the truth came out.
“I want to say shame on Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar because they played a role in the fact that this agreement, with the Arab nations that he was going to meet with fell apart,” she said.
“We now know that this hospital attack that took place, Biden said he is very confident it was not the Israelis that did it. It was likely Islamic Jihad and that’s because of US Department of Defense intelligence and footage analyzed,” Griffin, who is Lebanese and Syrian on her father’s side, continued.
“What happened is people like you said, people got angry and outraged. People took it to the streets in the middle of the night to protest and it turns out that very, very likely was not true,” she noted.
“And shame on those congresswomen for not walking back those wrong statements that they made,” Griffin said.
Shameful that this false tweet is still up. https://t.co/dN00VI8Qir
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) October 18, 2023
Omar had taken to X in the wake of the airstrike, calling on President Joe Biden “to push for an immediate ceasefire to end this slaughter.”
“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific,” she wrote.
Fellow Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was among many who fired back at the Muslim lawmaker.
Any civilian deaths are tragic. Hamas intentionally murdered 1300 Israelis and took 200 hostages because they are Jewish and want to eradicate #Israel. We don’t know the facts. You have been training your outrage on the wrong party. We do know that Hamas’ hatred is the catalyst. https://t.co/CGHjL5Bd98
— Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) October 17, 2023
Griffin further discussed Biden’s comments regarding the strike and that Israel was not responsible.
“Joe Biden nailed it, that was a very strong moment for the American president,” she said of his words while in Israel.
“But I hope members of the Squad tuned in,” Griffin added Wednesday. “Yesterday Rashida Tlaib was asked to condemn the butchering of children, she refused to answer the question, she refused to condemn it.”