You
Next we turn to second congressional district U.S. Representative Mark
Pokan who has called for a ceasefire of hostilities against civilians in the war
between Israel and Hamas to pave the way for a robust aid in an unfolding
humanitarian crisis. He joins us now. Thanks very much for being here. Yeah
thank you for Ejika. First in the face of war and humanitarian crisis the House of
Representatives Republican majority is in chaos. How does their struggle to
elect a speaker affect the U.S. response in Israel? Well it affects anything that
we can do in Congress. We can't pass any legislation on the floor until we have a
speaker by our rules and because of that until we have a speaker we're a bit
paralyzed. Now action is happens often at the administration level so the
president is acting and doing what we need to in the immediate situation some
world events but we do need Congress to pass funding and other issues that are
going to have to happen and you can only do that when the Republican caucus
becomes less chaotic and can select a speaker. Did President Biden address
last night what you think is needed in terms of supplemental military and
humanitarian aid funding? Well what we need absolutely is funding for humanitarian
needs in particular. You know I think that figure is going to have to be much
more substantial than we've seen in the past given world events and I think
that's really important because that is an important part of how the U.S. is
positioned in the world is that kind of showing that compassionate values of
our country and there will also be the traditional military assistance for Ukraine
they're proposing for Israel and some border funding and other things there's
also going to be another domestic supplemental that'll have money for
things like child care and other issues so those are two things that Congress
does have to act on which is again all the more reason why we need to have a
speaker so that we can do that short of that some of those funds cannot be
expended. You've called for a cessation of hostilities towards civilians in the
region. What are your urgent concerns about what's happening right now? Yeah I
mean there's no question this was a horrific attack by a terrorist
organization Hamas and the price has to be paid right I don't blame Israel in
going after Hamas the problem is what we're seeing is not going after
strategically Hamas we're seeing a collective punishment it appears to be
of the of all Palestinians in Gaza there are 2.2 million people clearly
they're not all Hamas half of them are children and we've seen thousands plus
now of people that are dead including children and the amount of bombing the
type of places that are being bombed the very broad attack is not a targeted
attack going after Hamas and that's why we want to stop the cessation of of this
in in regards to civilians in particular and the only way that you can you know
ensure that the people aren't being just punished is to do that just speaking
with Republican Glenn growth when he and others call to close our borders to
Palestinian refugees what's your response to that it's incredibly xenophobic I
mean obviously not all Palestinians are members of Hamas by an unbelievable
amount and Hamas doesn't necessarily represent the Palestinian people in
fact they've had people in Gaza under quite tough conditions with their
governing in that area combined by the the inability for people to come and go
because of Israel in Egypt on the borders has really made this in many ways an
open-air prison for 2.2 million people for a long time I've talked about Gaza
for years I've twice been denied when I've been there to get in I just recently
gotten permission from Israel to go I would be the first member in 10 years to
be able to go in and then this happened it's been an issue that's been
brewing for a long time but clearly a horrific attack like occurred is wrong
at any level there's no justification whatsoever but having the over response
that's happening including people saying no Palestinians should be able to come
that's a ridiculous statement and it really shows I think an unawareness of
what's actually happening on the ground represent Mark Pokan thanks very much
for joining us sure thank you
thank you sir appreciate it yeah yeah no thank you there was one question I
didn't get a chance to ask that I would like to ask and that was do you have
any constituents that you've heard from that are in harm's way there we have
people that have returned since it's happened but I'm not sure if we have
any still in harm's way right now okay part of it is that they've reached out
to us which people have but honestly the US has done a pretty good job and
helping to facilitate that good all right thank you sure all right thank
you take care yep we'll see you bye