House Democratic Leadership Holds Up Defund Hamas Legislation

Florida Rep.Brian Mast (R), the U.S. Army combat veteran who lost both his legs and a digit while serving in Afghanistan, is accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leadership of siding with the terrorist group Hamas the state of Israel.

During his weekly video update to constituents, Rep. Mast said that he believes “it is a dark day in our nation’s history when Democrat leadership seemingly sides with Hamas a terrorist organization over our ally Israel” because House Democrats, particularly Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D), continue to hold up legislation he has introduced that would sanction “financial backers of Hamas.”

Mast, who also served alongside the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) after recovering from his injuries, points out the defunding Hamas is a priority since the group is now part of the Palestinian Authority or government. In 2006, Palestinians elected members of Hamas to their governing body, and now have control of any and all monies they receive in aid from the U.S. and other countries.

In addition, Mast also mentions that while the world has focused on the hundreds of indiscriminate Hamas rocket attacks against Israel over the past week, these kinds of attacks happen on a regular basis without it being reported by the world media.

“Rocket attacks that are being lobbed indiscriminately into the most heavily populated areas, they're not shooting them at military targets, they're just trying to hit the heaviest centers of population to kill the most civilians as possible, said Mast.

One or two rocket attacks on any given day or over the course of a week, or even a month, are not as newsworthy as this past week's barrage of launchings against Israelis by Hamas terrorists.

Mast made the case for Israel defensive posturing and retaliatory attacks against Hamas, saying that if “enemies” within neighboring countries to the U.S. like Canada or Mexico were to conduct attacks like the one’s being carried out against Israel, the U.S. would “destroy those enemies.”

Several of Mast's Democratic colleagues in the House, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) and Ted Deutch (D), have defended Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas and Palestinian terrorist aggression, while Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R) gave House Democrats an ultimatium.