Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is carefully toeing the line between throwing her full support behind the hostage families demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war and aligning with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for total victory over Hamas.
Ernst, co-chair of the Abraham Accords, has been to Israel and the Middle East more times since October 7 than anyone else in Washington, barring Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden administration’s team of ceasefire negotiators.
Ernst has met several times with Netanyahu in Israel and in Washington and has held nearly a dozen meetings with hostage relatives.
For the past 11 months, she’s led bipartisan efforts to keep the conversation focused on the hostages and their families.
Now, at this critical juncture in the war following the deaths of six hostages in a tunnel under Rafah last weekend, the growing anger of hostage families toward Netanyahu has boiled over into strikes and mass protests in Israel.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the major group representing hostage families, formally asked Netanyahu to remove the yellow hostage pin from his lapel this week in a stunning repudiation of the prime minister’s “deceptive display of false support.”
Ernst, who returned from her fourth trip to Israel since October 7 on Monday, met with Netanyahu just before the current protests erupted.
He feels it’s “very important” to maintain the Philadelphi corridor and make sure that arms are not being smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Ernst told reporters on Thursday morning before the second day of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership summit kicked off in Las Vegas.
“He feels that they are at a very good point right now. When I spoke with him face to face, he felt that Hamas was being choked out because they weren’t able to resupply their efforts,” Ernst said.
The Philadelphi corridor
In regard to the Philadelphi corridor, a sticking point for Netanyahu in his negotiations, Ernst said she will “leave that decision up to those that are negotiating towards a ceasefire deal.”
The Israeli public is overwhelmingly joining the hostage families’ calls to bring the war to an end.
“I am not going to argue about anything that the hostage families are expressing to the prime minister,” Ernst told reporters when asked for her response to hostage family messaging. “There will be a reckoning between the prime minister and those families. One, we have to see what is right for Israel, but absolutely, we must get to a point where we can get these hostages home.”
Any deal must be clearly advantageous to Israel that will preserve her forever, she said.
Ernst said Israel must continue with military action, adding, “We hope that we can get all of our hostages back.”
“But what we saw demonstrated last weekend was how brutal Hamas is with the murder of those six hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, so again, we’ll keep negotiating,” Ernst said. “We have a lot of folks that are leveraging as much as they can. We need to put more pressure on Iran as well.”
Ernst, in remarks to the first night of the RJC’s summit, slammed President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their Iran policies and handling of Israel.
While lauded for her bipartisan efforts since October 7, Ernst maintained this criticism of the Biden administration isn’t political.
“I think we all have our own voices, and I respect our hostage families very much,” she said. “I’ve gotten to know each one of these families, and I care very deeply for them and for their loved ones. What I’m trying to do is force the issue.”
It comes from Iran, Ernst said. “Let’s make no bones about this.”
Ernst on Thursday again said more pressure from the Biden-Harris administration is needed on Iran and they need to “stop straddling the fence.”
“They need to pick a side that is right, and that side is standing with Israel and getting these hostages home,” she said.
Ernst, seemingly out of line with the sentiment of overwhelming appreciation and gratitude from American hostage families, said Biden and Harris have not spoken about the American hostages and the Americans killed on October 7.
When informed that the eight American hostage families have been incredibly vocal, and the Biden Administration is doing more than Netanyahu to bring their loved ones home, Ernst praised CIA Director Bill Burns and top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk.
“I’m going to give very clear kudos to Burns and to McGurk, because they are working diligently to get these hostage families home,” she said. “Biden has been very gracious with the families, but he himself needs to step up and push back against Iran.”
Ernst didn’t say what that would look like right now.
“He needs to call out Hamas, and he needs to call out those here in the United States that are supporting Hamas. We’re not talking about Palestinians anymore, you see the Hamas flag being raised over campuses,” Ernst said. “You see the Hamas flag being displayed on city streets here in the United States. When we’re not putting down that flag and moving out those protesters, which are clearly signaling the killing of Jews is okay, they are adding to Iran, Hamas’s, Hezbollah’s and the Islamic Palestinian jihad, adding to all of their rhetoric.”
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