Adopting Hamas talking points, Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi justified what he called the “Al-Aqsa Flood” massacre on October 7th, saying it must be looked upon in "context" of Israeli actions against Palestinians.
This came during a press conference with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, in Amman.
A reporter asked Al Safadi why he is only calling for Israel to stop fighting in Gaza, "Why haven't you called on Hamas to release the hostages, and maybe lay down their arms so that this war could end?"
Al-Safadi didn't answer the question. Instead, he dissembled for a couple of minutes, falsely claiming that "the whole Arab world condemned the killings of Israeli civilians on October 7." This is an absolute lie. Most official statements were of "concern" over "escalation of violence on both sides" while the Arab world itself was supportive of the attacks as "legitimate resistance." Outside of the UAE and Bahrain, who issued clarifying statements days later after Israeli complaints on their "all lives matter" statements, I don't see any Arab nation condemning Hamas. Including Jordan.
He then falsely compared this faux condemnation to the lack of condemnation of Israeli officials for the "killing of 30,000 Palestinian civilians." Yes, he called 12,000 Hamas terrorists "civilians."
Al-Safadi then claimed that there can be no peace without a Palestinian state as he continued to refuse to call for Hamas to release hostages or lay down their arms.
But that wasn't the worst part.
He then added this disgusting addendum: “We have to remember that October 7th did not happen out of a vacuum, there's a context,” and he then went through a laundry list of supposed Israeli crimes. He then said that if Palestinians don't get a state, there will be more October 7ths in coming years, justifying not only last year's massacre but peremptorily justifying whatever outrages Palestinian terrorists do in the future.
All of this was said in fluent English.
There are scores of separatist movements in the world demanding their own state. No one says that violence is justified in their pursuit of their goals. Only for Palestinians are world leaders saying, sure, what can you expect, of course they will be violent forever unless they get their demands met.
Schallenberg, for his part, did not say anything to disagree with al-Safadi's words, and he even thanked Safadi "for the warm welcome and thought-provoking discussions."
I'm tweeting Schallenberg to ask whether blaming Jews for being slaughtered is considered "thought provoking" to him.
