U.S. Congressman Randy Fine, a Jewish Republican from Florida, compared Hamas to the Nazis and said the war in Gaza must end with the terrorist group’s “complete and total surrender" in response to the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC.
The victims, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were killed in what Israeli officials have described as a terror attack targeting embassy personnel. The assailant is in custody.
Freshman GOP Rep. Randy Fine calls for 'nuking' Gaza in an interview on Fox News
(Video: Fox News)
In an interview with Fox News, Rep. Fine was asked whether the shooting changed the calculus on calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. “The only end of the conflict [in Gaza] is complete and total surrender by those who support Muslim terror,” Fine said.
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Citing historical precedent, Fine compared the situation to World War II. “In World War II, we didn’t negotiate a surrender with the Nazis. We didn’t negotiate a surrender with the Japanese. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here,” he said.
Fine, serving his first term in Congress after previously holding seats in Florida’s state House and Senate, further asserted: “The fact of the matter is the Palestinian cause is an evil one. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture, and it needs to be defeated.”
In November 2023, less than a month after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party known for his hawkish views, sparked a firestorm after refusing to rule out the use of a nuclear weapon on Gaza.
In a radio interview with the ultra-Orthodox station Kol Barama, Eliyahu was asked whether he supported dropping “some sort of nuclear bomb” on Gaza, referencing his claim that there were "no innocent civilians" in the territory. “That’s one option,” he responded. “The second option is to examine what matters to them, what would create the next level of deterrence.”
When pressed on how such a stance could be reconciled with the presence of 241 hostages held in Gaza at the time, Eliyahu replied, “They should beg to return the hostages. In war, there are prices. Why are the lives of the hostages more important than the lives of our soldiers?”
The remarks drew immediate condemnation from across the political spectrum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments, describing them as “detached from reality.” He later announced that Eliyahu would be suspended from attending Cabinet meetings.
- A previous version of this story included a quote suggesting that Rep. Fine called for the use of nuclear weapons in Gaza. The quote has been removed, and the article has been updated to reflect the accurate details. We apologize for any confusion caused as a result of this error.