Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) walked away from a taunting Sky News reporter who has blamed “Jewish hate” incidents in the UK on Israel.
Mark Stone, who was dubbed the “anti-Israel propagandists” for giving a platform to the cofounder of Hamas, demanded Ted Cruz answer why gun violence is “only in America.”
“If you want to stop violent crime, the proposals the Democrats have, none of them would have stopped this,” Cruz answered Stone.
“But why does this only happen in your country?” Stone continued. “I really think that’s what many people around the world, just, they cannot fathom. Why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful?”
“You know what? You’ve got your political agenda. God love you,” Cruz said before walking away from Stone. Stone continued to follow Cruz around the room but Cruz would no longer acknowledge Stone’s questions.
Stone’s assertion that mass shootings are a uniquely American problem is not accurate, according to Newsweek on Thursday. “Since 1998, there have been a total of nine attacks similar to the Robb Elementary School shooting. Nine is nine too many. But once you adjust for population, there are many other countries, from Germany to Russia to Finland, that have comparable rates of school shootings.”
According to a Crime Prevention Research Center report from 2020, “The U.S. is well below the world average in terms of the number of mass public shootings, and the global increase over time has been much bigger than for the United States”:
By our count, the US makes up less than 1.13% of the mass public shooters, 1.77% of their murders, and 2.19% of their attacks. All these are much less than the US’s 4.6% share of the world population. Attacks in the US are not only less frequent than other countries, they are also much less deadly on average.
Out of the 101 countries where we have identified mass public shootings occurring, the United States ranks 66th in the per capita frequency of these attacks and 56th in the murder rate. Not only have these attacks been much more common outside the US, the US’s share of these attacks has declined over time. There has been a much bigger increase over time in the number of mass shootings in the rest of the world compared to the US.
Stone has a history of Israel sentiment and has provided Hamas a platform from which to speak against Israel. In his interview, the Hamas cofounder said Israel has no right to exist:
In 2021, Stone also blamed “Jewish hate” incidents in the UK on Israel.
“I am so sorry your children have to hide. Unacceptable. It’s interesting that so many *Israelis* tell me that the ‘Jew hatred’ you experience is actually the consequence of the current Israeli government’s policies; their prolongation of an untenable occupation,” Stone responded to a Twitter user about antisemitism.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.