ICYMI: Gallego Discuss Israel-Hamas War with Jen Psaki
WASHINGTON, DC – This weekend, Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-03) joined MSNBC host Jen Psaki to discuss his continued support for Israel as it battles Hamas, what needs to be done to limit civilian causalities, and how disfunction in the Republican conference has hamstrung Congress’ ability to fully support our ally, Israel.
Watch the full interview and see the transcript below.
Jen Psaki
So, Congressman, you have served you, have been a young soldier, a young Marine yourself. I just wanted to ask you, there's 350,000 reservists who have been called by the Israeli government. I mean, some of them are people who are civilians, who have been living normal lives, some in the United States. What's going through the mind of some of these reservists at this point in time, preparing to fight a war in Gaza?
Ruben Gallego
Well, I actually was a reservist infantryman, and everyone I served with in war were reservists. And these were men that were firefighters and police officers. Some there were lawyers, teachers, all walks of life that decided to raise their hand and pledge allegiance to this country. And I believe the same thing that I was feeling when I got activated is what these Israelis are feeling right now.
A little bit of apprehension, a little bit of pride in the fact that they're going to go serve their country, but also with determination, because they know that they've been well-trained and that what they're doing is right. Their country was attacked. It was an unprecedented attack. It is Israel's 9/11. I, you know, I feel for them.
And I absolutely, really am scared for them, too. I've been in a lot of urban combat, much too much in my opinion. And what they're about to do is very difficult. It's very dangerous. And, you know, a lot of them are saying goodbyes and... they... they might be the last goodbyes.
Psaki
It's really remarkable to watch all these people getting ready and packing their bags to serve, as I know you did, as a reservist as well. A military official tells NBC News that the USS Dwight Eisenhower carrier strike group is departing to the Eastern Mediterranean. We're told this was preplanned, but once there, the U.S. will have two carrier strike groups in the area. In addition to the symbolism here - it's obviously a symbol of strength and a symbol of support - what does this accomplish? Help us understand that.
Gallego
Well, number one, symbolically, it shows the people of Israel and our allies that we're going to stand next to and support our closest ally, Israel. Number two, the enemies of Israel, as well as enemies of the United States, need to know that we are also standing by in case we need to be involved. What does that look like? We can't really go into details. But let me tell you, having two aircraft strike groups like that, from my experience being on the Armed Services Committee, that has a lot of power. It is an absolute projection of power that I think will make a lot of foreign adversaries, I would say second guess, if they wanted to get themselves more involved deeply in this conflict.
Psaki
And as we wait for the ground offensive to start, and we don't have any updates on that at this moment, but there's also an impact, of course, of this evacuation order on the people of Gaza who are struggling to figure out where to go. Many of them have nowhere to go. What would you like to see the United States doing in this moment regarding this pending humanitarian crisis?
Gallego
Look, I think we are doing as much as we can, working with some of our partners, Arab partners that have good communications into Gaza, talking to Egypt about opening up their borders to allow both U.S. citizens and other potential refugees thinking of seeking safety. You know, we're seeing obviously, on the other end, we should also be sending and helping Israel with a lot of intelligence.
Why does that matter? If we can actually point to Israel, to the Israeli Defense Forces, where Hamas is and where Hamas supplies are, it will allow them to be more strategic and surgical about their attacks and potentially avoid civilian casualties. But this is hard. This is very hard work. Doing urban combat is very difficult. The nature of it is going to be very slow and it's going to be very tedious.
But the fact is, you know, this is something that Israel feels it needs to do because of the atrocities that occurred, the barbarism that Hamas has shown, no country would stand for it. And we need to make sure that we're there to support Israel in this process.
Psaki
This is not a moment for politics, but we have heard the former president suggest that Hezbollah is smart. We've also... there's obviously a lot of challenges happening in the House with the lack of a Speaker. You've been on the Armed Services Committee. You have served in the military. What kind of message does this send to the world and how do you think people are digesting what's happening here right now?
Gallego
Well, it does not look good. To be honest, there is, you know, certainly some of the enemies of the United States, the enemies of democracy are looking at the dysfunction on the House floor, looking at the former president, you know, you know, praising a terrorist group and you know, dissing, you know, one of our allies.
It tells you, and tells you if you're a foreign country that, you know, you can split the United States up in terms of how we conduct ourselves, how we believe, and how we actually treat our allies. This is why it's important that the Republicans, if they can't get together to get their own Speaker, to come work with us, we will find a solution to get us through the next couple of weeks, at a minimum, to deal with these national problems.
This is why we need President Trump to really respect and understand what he's saying… he understands that what he's saying has potential to really have, you know, really negative potential in the world situation right now. It's weird to say, but maybe Trump should be a little more quiet on this. It’s hard to hard to imagine. But, you know, words do matter right now. World leaders, especially American world leaders, need to know that their words are going to have big, big footprints all over the world if we say something incorrectly.
Psaki
Words certainly do matter. Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you so much.