{"id":16886,"date":"2024-03-12T12:47:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/12\/cia-intel-director-struggle-to-say-if-israel-is-actually-exterminating-palestinians\/"},"modified":"2024-03-12T12:47:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:47:05","slug":"cia-intel-director-struggle-to-say-if-israel-is-actually-exterminating-palestinians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/12\/cia-intel-director-struggle-to-say-if-israel-is-actually-exterminating-palestinians\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA, intel director struggle to say if Israel is actually \u2018exterminating\u2019 Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"paywall has-gated-overlay gated-article-body\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">When questioned by Sen. Tom Cotton on Monday, national security officials grappled with whether they believe Israel is engaged in the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">During the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence\u2019s annual Worldwide Threats hearing \u2014 which was interrupted several times by protesters demonstrating for a ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas \u2014 Cotton asked both CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines if Israel was \u2018exterminating\u2019 Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Some of our audience members are accusing you of pretty serious conduct,\u2019 Cotton said, referencing the protesters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I want to give you a chance to respond to what\u2019s been said,\u2019 he continued. \u2018Is Israel exterminating the Palestinian people?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Burns responded: \u2018I think there are a lot of innocent civilians in Gaza who are in desperate conditions right now.\u2019 He added that there are also hostages in \u2018desperate circumstances.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>When pressed by Cotton, Burns said, \u2018No,\u2019 and said he understands Israel\u2019s need to respond to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. But, he said, \u2018I think we also have to be mindful of the enormous toll that this has taken on innocent civilians in Gaza.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Arkansas Republican then turned the question toward Haines, asking her opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I really don\u2019t have anything to add to what Director Burns has said,\u2019 she explained, adding that she fully endorsed his response.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When Cotton asked Burns if Israel was starving children, as protesters claimed, the CIA director said, \u2018I think the reality is that there are children who are starving.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The senator pressed him as to whether this was Israel\u2019s doing, to which Burns didn\u2019t respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018They\u2019re starving,\u2019 Burns reiterated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cotton then stated for the record that he doesn\u2019t believe Israel or any of the national security witnesses are either \u2018exterminating the Palestinian people or starving Palestinian children.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The senator told Fox News Digital afterward that he was \u2018disappointed\u2019 by their answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When questioned by Sen. Tom Cotton on Monday, national security officials grappled with whether they believe Israel is engaged in the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people.\u00a0 During the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence\u2019s annual Worldwide Threats hearing \u2014 which was interrupted several times by protesters demonstrating for a ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}