Brian Mast: Pro-Israel hawk set to lead US House foreign policy panel
Palestinian rights advocates in the United States are denouncing the selection of Republican Congressman Brian Mast to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mast, a pro-Israel hawk known for his incendiary remarks about Palestinians, was nominated on Monday by fellow Republicans to be the chair of the influential panel in the incoming Congress, prompting outrage.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the antiwar group Code Pink, described Mast as the “most cruel, heartless member of Congress”.
“His total disregard for Palestinian civilians fans the flames of violence. His position as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee bodes ill for a foreign policy that strives to protect human life and promote peace,” she told Al Jazeera.
Mast previously suggested that all Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets for Israeli violence and starvation.
“I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians,” the US congressman said last year.
US Muslim group calls Biden ‘mass murderer of Muslims’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says a newly released White House strategy to combat Islamophobia is “too little, too late”, citing President Joe Biden’s unconditional backing of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“President Biden cannot credibly claim to care about Muslims or Islamophobia while simultaneously supporting the Israeli government’s destruction of mosques, desecration of Qurans, and mass murder of a predominantly Muslim population,” the group said in a statement.
“By enabling Netanyahu’s war crimes, President Biden has sadly become a mass murderer of Muslims.”
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