MSNBC’s O’Donnell: Israel Is Launching ‘Disproportionate’ We’ll Hit ‘Harder than You’d Ever Expect’ Response to Hamas

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” host Lawrence O’Donnell stated that the Israeli government in the 21st century “seems to have deliberately and publicly abandoned the notion of proportionate response” and is using a response that is “in effect, disproportionate,” by taking an approach towards Hamas that “we will hit you even harder than you’d ever expect.”

During an interview with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof where Kristof criticized Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas attack, O’Donnell stated, “Nick, the phrase that used to frame these events in the 20th century was proportionate response. Whether it be the United States, whether it would be Israel responding to some kind of attack, the response was supposed to be, in theory, proportionate. The 21st-century Israeli government seems to have deliberately and publicly abandoned the notion of proportionate response, into, in effect, disproportionate, saying we will hit you even harder than you’d ever expect. This seems to be the deliberate framing that they want.”

Kristof responded by stating the lesson Israel learned from its last war against Hezbollah is that “you can create enough pain on civilians, it trickles through to the government, and it will lead to more prudence beyond the road.”

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