Lawmakers Who Have Ignored Gaza Crisis Now Want War With Iran

Lawmakers who sat on sidelines as more than 33,000 Gazans killed want to join Israel in facing down ‘disproportionate’ response by Tehran.

by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Responsible Statecraft

Members of Congress who have said little to nothing about the over 33,000 Palestinians dead amid Israeli bombs and artillery — two-thirds deemed innocent civilians — in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis, are swiftly calling the Iranian drone and missile attacks Saturday night a “disproportionate” response by Iran.

Iran was responding to the killing of seven of its officials in what has been deemed to be by many (except most pro-Israel Western countries) an illegal Israeli strike on the Iranian consultate in Syria on April 1. Saturday’s response by Iran has been called highly choreographed to send a message, even limited, and it was. After the missiles and drones started to fly, the Iranians literally broadcast that their message to Israel had “concluded.”

On Sunday morning, the Israelis and the U.S. reported that 99 percent of the more than 300 projectiles had been shot down by U.S. and Israeli defense systems. There were no deaths, but a seven-year-old girl remains in hospital with life threatening injuries. Her home in the Negev Desert was hit with falling shrapnel from an intercepted missile.