Antony Blinken's final press conference as secretary of state was disrupted by two journalists who have long criticized America's support of Israel. Security personnel picked up independent journalist Sam Husseini and carried him out of the room after he protested Blinken's handling of the war in Gaza, reports Reuters. "Criminal! Why aren't you in The Hague?" Husseini shouted, referring to the home of the International Criminal Court.
Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone blog, was escorted out of the room after calling Blinken a "monster." He said, "Your father-in-law was an Israel lobbyist. Your grandfather was an Israel lobbyist. Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen?" per the Hill. "How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?" As he was removed from the room, he said, "Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May? We all knew we had a deal."
Blinken asked the men to "respect" the process, the AP reports. In response to other questions after the interruptions, he defended the administration's handling of the war, saying the US has had "real differences" with Israel and was very aware of civilian suffering in Gaza. Blinken said the differences had been "clearly expressed," but "we've mostly done it privately, precisely because we didn't want to feed into Hamas' clearly held views that if that pressure was mounting, and if there was daylight, they could do nothing." That "they could refuse to engage on the negotiations, hold back on a ceasefire and releasing the hostages, and thus perpetuate the suffering, the loss for the people that they purport to represent." (More Antony Blinken stories.)
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