A Michigan congressman has suggested that an atomic bomb should be dropped on Gaza to “support Israel’s rapid elimination of Hamas.”
Speaking at a town hall earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Republican from Lenawee County, seemed perfectly comfortable advocating the use of nuclear weapons against the Palestinians.
‘It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Finish it quickly,” Walberg was heard saying in a video on X in which he named the Japanese cities where America detonated atomic bombs at the end of World War II.
Walberg, an eight-term Republican congressman from Lenawee County, can also be heard opposing providing humanitarian aid to people in the Palestinian territory.
“We shouldn’t spend a dime on humanitarian aid,” Walberg said in response to a question about US troops being deployed to Gaza to build a port that could help deliver aid to the Palestinians.
Michigan Republican Congressman Tim Walberg has proposed using a nuclear bomb on Gaza to facilitate Israel’s elimination of Hamas
The comments were made during a town hall meeting in Dundee, Michigan on March 25
Walberg had been responding to a question about an initiative by President Joe Biden to use American taxpayer money to build a port off the coast of Gaza, which would speed delivery of humanitarian aid.
Many recent reports have suggested that Gaza’s two million residents are on the brink of famine as Israel’s war against Hamas approaches the six-month mark.
The conflict began after Hamas terrorists launched an attack on Israeli civilians, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
Walberg’s office has now tried to explain the Republican congressman’s seemingly simple answer as a metaphor.
“During his community meeting, he is clearly using a metaphor to support Israel’s rapid elimination of Hamas, which is the best chance to save lives in the long term and the only hope of achieving permanent peace in the region,” he said. Walberg spokesman Mike Rorke. Saturday.
Many recent reports have suggested that Gaza’s 2 million residents are on the brink of famine as Israel’s war against Hamas approaches the six-month mark (file photo from Gaza war)
A Palestinian youth inspects the rubble of a building after Friday’s Israeli bombardment at the Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas
“Congressman Walberg strongly disagrees that our troops are being endangered. “He has great empathy for the innocent people in Gaza who found themselves in this situation as a result of the Hamas attack that killed 1,163 innocent civilians,” Rorke continued.
“To this day, Hamas continues to hold hostages, including Americans. Hamas must surrender and return the hostages.”
Walberg’s comments are described as a “clear call for genocide by a member of Congress.”
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said his comments “must be condemned by all Americans who value human life and international law.”
“To so casually call for what would result in the killing of every human being in Gaza sends the chilling message that Palestinian lives have no value,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR. Detroit News.
“It is this dehumanization of the Palestinian people that has resulted in the continued slaughter and suffering we see every day in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The UN Food Agency has said there is a ‘threat’ of famine in northern Gaza, with two-thirds of the population experiencing catastrophic hunger.
Later at the town hall, held March 25 in Dundee, Michigan, Walberg further suggested that an atomic bomb should also be used in Russia’s war with Ukraine to “quickly defeat Putin.”
An aerial view of Hiroshima, Japan, shortly after the ‘Little Boy’ atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, three days after dropping one on Hiroshima. Japan would surrender five days later, ending World War II
He said that instead of US money being used to provide aid to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes, it should instead be used “to wipe out Russia, if that’s what we want to do.”
Walberg has been taken to task by his Democratic colleagues for his comments, with some calling for his immediate resignation.
Michigan Democratic Senator Darrin Camilleri tweeted how Walberg was caught on video “endorsing and calling for a complete genocide in Gaza.”
“He is an absolute disgrace and must resign,” Camilleri said.
“Threatening to use, suggesting use, or God forbid actually using nuclear weapons are unacceptable war tactics in the 21st century,” wrote Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens.
Walberg has been taken to task by his Democratic colleagues for his comments, with some calling for his immediate resignation
“As WJ Hennigan recently and accurately described for the NYT, the use of nuclear weapons creates hell on earth.”
Fellow Michiagn Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin also condemned his comments.
“This is a reprehensible thing for anyone to suggest, especially an elected official and someone who considers himself a man of faith. Rep. Walberg should take back his comments and try to put himself in the shoes of the many Michiganders who see themselves in the victims in Gaza,” Slotkin said in a statement.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee said Walberg’s comments were horrific and shocking.
“It is an indefensible position to argue against humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza while at the same time calling for the large-scale mass murder of the Palestinian people. I couldn’t disagree more with these extreme and dangerous comments,” Kildee said in a statement.