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Republican Sparks Fury for Saying Gaza Should Be Treated Like Hiroshima
Representative Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, sparked fury on social media over the weekend for his recent remarks in which he stated that Gaza should be treated like Hiroshima.
Politicians remain divided over the United States’ response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which began after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people. Israel, in response, subsequently launched its heaviest-ever air strikes on Gaza. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Associated Press reported. The rising death toll has led to international calls for a ceasefire.
As concerns continue to grow over increasing civilian casualties in the conflict, President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address earlier this month announced a plan to provide aid to Gaza. The plan would see the U.S. military establish a temporary pier on the coast of Gaza to ramp up humanitarian assistance.
On Saturday, a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, of Walberg made its way online as the congressman can be heard discussing the Israel-Hamas war.
Amid answering a question from a constituent about Biden’s plans to build the pier to provide aid, Walberg can be heard saying, “It’s Joe Biden’s reason, we need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. I don’t think we should. I don’t think any of our aid that goes to Israel, to support our greatest ally, arguably maybe in the world, to defeat Hamas and Iran and Russia and probably North Korea’s in there and China too, with them in helping Hamas. We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.”
During World War II on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.
Newsweek has reached out to Walberg’s office and the White House via email for comment.
Walberg’s comments have since sparked concern and anger from others as they took to X to condemn his remarks.
![Tim Walberg](https://i0.wp.com/d.newsweek.com/en/full/2370591/tim-walberg.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson wrote on X, “If this is what modern Republican leadership has descended to, then Republicans of good will have some serious work to do ridding their party of this kind of thinking. @TimWalberg’s comments are not only ignorant but barbaric; not only unAmerican but inhumane. They represent the opposite of what America should stand for.”
Nick Knudsen, executive director of Demcast, wrote on X, “Wow. CAUGHT ON TAPE. Republican Congressman Tim Walberg of MI-05 denounces Biden’s efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. His solution? Nuke ’em.”
In his X post, human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid noted Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, who was censured for her previous comments about the Israel-Hamas war.
“Fellow MI Rep Rashid Tlaib was censured for saying ‘From the river to the sea.’ As Rep Tim Walberg calls for mass nuclear genocide of 2M Palestinians, I look forward to the 22 Dems who voted with MAGA GOP to censure Tlaib, introducing a censure resolution against Walberg ASAP,” he wrote.
The House of Representatives voted in November to censure the Democrat and the only Palestinian American in Congress by 234 votes to 188 over her remarks about the conflict. Tlaib sparked criticism by defending the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and urged lawmakers to join her in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
However, Walberg responded to the criticism in a statement on X writing, “As a child who grew up in the Cold War Era, the last thing I’d advocate for would be the use of nuclear weapons. In a shortened clip I used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harms way. My reasoning was the exact opposite…the quicker these wars end, the fewer innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire.”
This comes as Biden and his administration have called on Israel not to move forward with a planned incursion into southern Gaza’s Rafah region where up to half of the densely populated Palestinian territory’s 2.2 million people are believed to be taking shelter.
Earlier this month, Biden announced that the U.S would carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza. Since then, the Department of Defense (DOD) has carried out three airdrops that include 192 bundles containing 112,896 meals, according to the White House.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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