Remember Codepink? The “anti-war” group’s star was a bit brighter during the George W. Bush years when its members would routinely garner press hits and national Democratic Party support. They apparently still exist, though, and Sen. Marco Rubio was recently confronted by Medea Benjamin, one of Codepink’s co-founders.
Naturally, she was spouting pro-Hamas talking points because her organization has never found a terrorist group it isn’t willing to support. Instead of just ignoring her and walking by, Rubio stopped and responded.
💥EPIC: @SenMarcoRubio video.
— Ron M. (@Jewtastic) November 30, 2023
"Are you filming?.. Make sure you post that" 👀
🔥🇺🇸🇮🇱🔥 pic.twitter.com/4wu4Vvfuz0
The graphics on the video appear to have been done by Codepink, which means they filmed this exchange and actually thought it made the group look good. Rubio rhetorically drop-kicks Benjamin, who is seen mumbling about “15,000 dead civilians,” a number produced exclusively by Hamas that is almost certainly completely made up given the logistics that would be required to actually recover and count the dead in Gaza.
Rubio quickly turned her claims around, noting that Hamas chose this war and that Hamas is solely responsible for the repercussions of it. No one made the terrorist government of Gaza invade Israel and kill 1,400 people while taking hundreds more hostage. That was a choice, and contrary to the constant infantilization of Palestinians, choices do have consequences.
That’s a broader issue I’ve hit on a few times. War is not meant to be fair. If a group of people continually stoke war through active aggression while not having the means to win it, they are dooming themselves. Hamas and the 76 percent of Palestinians who support Hamas can either join the rest of us in reality, or they can keep deluding themselves into thinking “international pressure” is going to somehow stop Israel from existing. If they choose the latter option and continue attacking Israel, they will receive overwhelming force in response.
In no other situation is it proclaimed that a country must stand down and continue to suffer deadly attacks because too many civilians are being killed in terrorist-controlled territories during retaliatory strikes. The solution is for the other side to stop committing terrorist attacks. That’s how hostilities ultimately end long-term, and it’s why Rubio is correct to blame Hamas for everything that has transpired.
For its part, Codepink is going to Codepink. Benjamin and her cohorts buy into the idea that the poorer one is and the darker one’s skin is, the more oppressed and righteous one must be. They don’t see things logically, and it shows in who they support.
