Mast on Middle East Terrorist Groups Against Israel: Killing Civilians is a 'Strategy'

Representative Brian Mast (R-FL) appeared on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” to discuss the rising tensions in the Middle East and the Biden administration’s rules of engagement in the area. Since Oct. 7, Israel, Hamas (Palestine), Iran, and other terrorist groups have exchanged violent attacks that have resulted in thousands of civilian casualties on both sides.

Initially, the Florida congressman spoke on the “juxtaposition” of Israel to its opponents and the response the Jewish state employed after the Iranian proxy Hezbollah bombed an Israeli soccer field, killing 12 children.

“They don't care about the response. And this always has to be remembered, juxtaposing Israel to Hamas, Israel, to Hezbollah, to Iran. It's a strategy for those entities to kill civilians. For Israel, it is a tragedy for civilians to be killed. That's the difference between these entities but again, they don't care,” said Rep. Mast. “Now, we do see what the response is that is posed by Iran. Iran has said very directly they are going to expand or at least proposed to expand their attacks boast more internally to Israel, and away from just military targets. That may mean assassination attempts, that may mean civilian attempts on the lives of more civilians like at the soccer field.”

Furthermore, former South Carolina congressman Gowdy questioned Rep. Mast on the possibility of a ceasefire accounting for the fact that these terrorist groups have killed thousands of innocent civilians.

Mast responded, “You can’t trust” terrorist groups.

“Let’s remember what was the deal that they were bringing forward. It was a phased approach to bring forward the hostages. Not ‘Here’s all the hostages back.’ A phased approach to returning the bodies, not a guarantee to lay down arms. And again, let’s juxtapose things here. If you want to talk about in my opinion, a strategy toward ending war, it's having an abundance of strength,” said Mast. “So the more strength that Israel shows, the more Hamas leaders that are killed, the more they have an inability to replace [Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh] with the next person, with the next person, and they have to struggle over who's measuring the curtains to lead Hamas or any other terrorist organization, the stronger the position is for Israel, the better situation we are in, in my opinion, to have an end to this conflict because of strength and have a return of the hostages.”

Finally, the Florida congressman spoke on the preparedness of the U.S. military should the tensions in the Middle East evolve to a state that requires American involvement. Rep. Mast did not seem too optimistic.

“I don't think we're prepared morally and with our conviction as to what does the leadership of our military, what vacuum do they have for our servicemembers on the ground to go out there and complete the job? And let me elaborate on that. We are in a situation where of course moving assets as you said, into the Gulf. Do we have a situation where the opponent, Iran, is in fear of our offensive capabilities? Or do they just see us as a potential defensive posture? And based upon what the Biden administration has told Iran, they are off the table as a target. This was the very words of General McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, Iran is off the table as a target for the Biden administration. That means no deterrence to him, he used the word this is aid and comfort to the enemy. So again, does our military, are they given the backing to our troops that have the confidence that hey, you're going into potentially a fight, you could be in a fight at America's there for the win? Or are we in a situation where America is one foot in one foot out because the politics being played by the Biden-Harris administration, and I fear that for our servicemembers, for my brothers and sisters that are wearing the uniform, they don't have that, hey, there's a full commitment to victory.”

Fears of escalation in the Middle East are mounting.