New Jersey Democratic Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy repeatedly declined to give a direct answer when asked whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, and defended his earlier comparisons between American and Iranian rhetoric, during an interview with “NJ PBS News” host Rob Nelson.
Asked directly whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, Hamawy said: “It currently exists. It’s the same question that everyone keeps asking over and over again. I think every country has a right to exist, but it should be providing equal rights to its people and providing civil liberties, human rights. And so, it currently exists. It’s a moot argument.”
Nelson pressed him on the distinction, comparing the exchange to Republicans who respond to questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election by simply noting that Joe Biden was sworn in. “I asked you, was the election fair? And, on this Israel question to you, yes, we all know they do exist. The question is, should they exist?” Nelson said.
Hamawy did not answer the question as posed. Instead he asked, “why are we talking about — so much about Israel?” and pivoted to his legislative priorities. “I got elected to be a Rep. from New Jersey, to take care of the people of New Jersey, and people here in the United States,” he said. “I want to be using my tax dollars to make sure that we have a healthcare system that works, that we have education, that we have childcare, that we unrig this economy, that we don’t have, like, ICE roaming through our streets and killing Americans.”
He added, “Honestly, I don’t care what’s going on right there more than what I care about the American people. I want to take care of people here at home.” He also said “everyone has a right to exist, but everyone needs to follow the laws.”
Pressed Again on Iran
Nelson also raised Hamawy’s prior refusal, in an earlier interview, to say whether Iran is an adversary of the United States. “I will ask you a sixth to see how you handle that today. Is Iran an adversary, and why do you not want to say that?” Nelson asked.
Hamawy again avoided a direct yes-or-no answer. “I will say, we don’t want to make adversaries. And it’s not a binary yes or no [thing],” he said. “We are provoking and creating the situation that we are in right now, where we’re in a war, and it’s making lives worse for Americans. And they’re making, definitely, lives worse for regular Iranians, who are suffering because of this as well.”
He went on to defend his broader view that Americans rejected conflict at the ballot box last week. “Americans, last week, voted that they don’t want war, that we want to be focusing on our domestic policy, we want to be focusing on making American lives better, and, also, how do we make Americans more safe,” Hamawy said. “And creating enemies around the world is not the way to do it.”
Defending the Moral Equivalence
Nelson then returned to comments Hamawy made in a separate CNN interview, in which he responded to Iran’s “death to America” rhetoric and history of killing Americans by noting that the U.S. has said “death to Iran” and has killed Iranians. Nelson asked directly whether Hamawy sees a moral equivalence between American and Iranian action and rhetoric.
“Well, we have President Trump saying that we should nuke Iran. That is a genocidal statement, that we are going to destroy their civilization and bomb them out of existence,” Hamawy said. “So, I think that, just saying there is rhetoric on both sides that should be discontinued and that it is not productive at all.”
“It currently exists. It’s the same question that everyone keeps asking over and over again… it’s a moot argument.” — Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy, on whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state
Add comment