US Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN). Photo: Reuters Connect

US Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) defended her recent vote to block US military aid to Israel, describing the Jewish state’s military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza as “antithetical” to American values.

In an interview with anti-Israel news host Mehdi Hasan published over the weekend, Smith said that her vote in November to impose a partial arms embargo on Israel “was an opportunity to stand up for our values.” She argued that the United States should not be “complicit” in the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that Israel’s conduct during the ongoing war in Gaza is “antithetical” to American values and possibly in violation of US policy regarding use of military arms. 

“I think it was [a] bad decision for people not to vote as I did,” Smith said. 

In November, Smith was among the 17 Democratic senators who voted in favor of legislation spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel. The legislation, S.J.Res.111, was a measure to ban the sale of tank cartridges to Israel, was defeated by a margin of 79 to 18. ​​Other anti-Israel resolutions sponsored by Sanders, S.J. Res. 113 and S.J. Res. 115, which targeted sales of mortar rounds and precision-guided bombs, were rejected on the Senate floor by similar margins. 

Hasan then lamented the supposed “pervasive anti-Palestinian racism” within American society, pointing out that US President Donald Trump has chided Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as being “a Palestinian.” Smith lambasted Trump’s insult to Schumer as “a disgusting thing to say,” before Hasan slammed former US President Joe Biden for “questioning the Palestinian death toll” and seeming “indifferent” to the mounting casualties in Gaza as a result of the Israel-Hamas war. 

Researchers have shown that casualty figures published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities have been inflated to defame Israel.

Hasan then asked Smith if she believed anti-Palestinian animus motivated the arrest of Columbia University campus agitator Mahmoud Khalil, who led riotous protests against Israel last academic year. The senator agreed, claiming that “at the very least, we should be able to come around the idea that everybody deserves due process in this country.” Smith then suggested that the Trump administration has utilized “authoritarian” tactics to demonize Palestinians and that “we have to stand up to that.” 

Zeteo, the network founded by Hasan that published the interview, has positioned itself as a major source of anti-Israel content creation. Hasan, the network’s main host, has declared the ongoing war in Gaza a “genocide” and repeatedly pressured US lawmakers to implement an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Hosts on Zeteo have also downplayed Hamas’s attacks against Israel, oftentimes referring to the terrorist group as a “resistance.”

Moreover, Zeteo’s high production value and elaborate sets have raised questions surrounding its funding sources, with critics alleging it has received money from Qatar. In response, Hasan has denied receiving “any money from foreign governments or foreign citizens,” adding that “every investor in Z is an American citizen [who] has nothing to do with Qatar.”