Panetta: Biden’s Scolding Israel for Doing Targeting He Says He Wants Them to Do and They Should Do with Haniyeh

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Defense Secretary and former CIA Director Leon Panetta responded to President Joe Biden scolding Israel for seemingly assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh by saying that “one of the things that we’ve encouraged Israel to do is to target the leaders of Hamas that were involved in the attack on Israel.” And that this is what Israel should do. Panetta acknowledged that the killing could have an impact on ceasefire talks, but argued, “that is what war is all about. And ultimately, it’s the price you have to pay in order to be able to make sure that you’re going after those responsible for killing Israelis.”

Host Andrea Mitchell said, “The President was asked last night, at Andrews, about will this — what is the impact on the ceasefire talks? And he said, it’s not helpful, grimly. Because the U.S. believed that they were on the precipice of something really big. The risk/reward here –.”

Panetta cut in to respond, “I’m sure that — at the same time, Mossad targets these kinds of people. And, frankly, one of the things that we’ve encouraged Israel to do is to target the leaders of Hamas that were involved in the attack on Israel. And they’re the best at targeting. This bomb was put in place two months ago into the guesthouse. And it was detonated when they knew that this Hamas leader was present. Obviously, going after the leadership that was involved in the attack is what Israel should be doing. At the same time, obviously, it could well impact on the negotiations involved with the ceasefire. But that is what war is all about. And ultimately, it’s the price you have to pay in order to be able to make sure that you’re going after those responsible for killing Israelis.”

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