Meeting with Netanyahu, Blumenthal says Israel focused on 'winning the peace'

On the one year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met with top Israeli leaders Monday to voice strong support by the United States for its ally and call for peace.Blumenthal traveled to Jerusalem to meet longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a bipartisan trip with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican."We emphasized our support for Israel's right to defend itself on this day when the feelings of pain and grief are very raw and real," Blumenthal told The Courant in a telephone interview from Israel. "We felt the heartbreak and agony still very palpable and present. The prime minister and all the officials who met with us were subdued and clearly focused on this difficult day. But we emphasized that Israel's military successes have to be followed by successful diplomacy to achieve lasting peace and security for the region, as well as Israel."Blumenthal and Graham traveled to commemorate the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack when Hamas invaded Israel and killed more than 1,200 Israelis. In the year since, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian health ministry.While fighting a daily war that now includes missiles being launched from Iran, officials are simultaneously trying to achieve peace in the future."They have to be, and they are focused on both the immediate challenges of the battlefield and the efforts to achieve a cessation of fighting that provides a path to peace," Blumenthal said. "They are strongly focused on the day after — not only winning the war, but in effect, winning the peace."He added, "Israel's survival and thriving is in America's interests as a matter of our national defense and security. They are doing both, as difficult as it is."One of the biggest issues for Israel is rescuing the hostages that have now been held for an entire year. Israeli commandos have rescued at least eight hostages, including a 52-year-old man who had been held in an underground tunnel."The best intelligence right now is that there are about 70 still alive," Blumenthal said.The trip marked Blumenthal's third to Israel since the Oct. 7 attack. Even with the recent Iranian missile barrage, Blumenthal said that he did not have fears for his safety.Without revealing precise details, Blumenthal said, "We have very effective and watchful security, so I feel very safe here."Blumenthal flew out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Saturday on the way to Frankfurt, Germany. He then flew on a military plane to Jordan for meetings in a multi-pronged trip that also includes other stops in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He was operating on about five hours' sleep Monday on the whirlwind trip. The senators are expecting to meet with Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in the ongoing search for peace.The fighting in Gaza has prompted protests and arrests on college campuses nationwide, particularly at Columbia University in New York City in mid-April and then spreading to other campuses. In Connecticut, that has included the University of Connecticut, Yale University in New Haven, Trinity College in Hartford, and Wesleyan University in Middletown, among others.Blumenthal and Graham also spoke with reporters in Israel as they stood with Netanyahu, according to multiple reports in Israeli media.At one point, Netanyahu turned to the senators and said, "I deeply appreciate the visit by Senators Graham and Blumenthal on this day of commemoration, October 7th. It was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but unlike the Holocaust, we fight back. We're fighting like lions with the support of the American government and the American people, and its representatives here. I want to thank you both for your stellar support for Israel throughout the war."Graham raised the issue of France, where Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron called for a military weapons embargo for Israel."You should be doubling down on helping Israel," Graham said of Macron, "because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people."Graham turned to Netanyahu at the press conference and said, "You're fighting our fight. We're going to help you with your military needs.""The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane, [but] because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day," Graham said of the attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. "And they would kill all of us if they could. If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen. So we're going to help you."Besides the senators, some top Israeli officials attended the meeting in Jerusalem, including Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser and head of the foreign affairs ministry for North America. Another attendee was Netanyahu's outspoken spokesman, Omer Dostri, who wrote an article earlier this year that said the Biden administration "threw Israel under the bus."Before leaving for the trip, Blumenthal said the meetings would be taking place at a critical time as the United States and others are hoping to reach a peace deal."The United States will have their back, and we will support their right to defend themselves," Blumenthal told The Courant in an interview Saturday from Kennedy airport before flying out of New York City. "One of the priorities is bringing the hostages home. We're hoping that widening or escalation of the war can be avoided. Diplomacy is still possible. We hope it will work."On numerous trips through the years to Israel and Ukraine, Blumenthal and Graham have become friends. Graham had traveled extensively overseas with U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and they had become known as "the three amigos" for their bipartisan work.U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says that Israel has the right to defend itself. But Murphy also said, as early as last year, that the civilian casualties were too high."I do believe that the level of civilian harm inside Gaza has been unacceptable and is unsustainable," Murphy said at the time on CNN. "I think there's both a moral cost to this — many civilians, innocent civilians, children often losing their lives, but I think there's a strategic cost. Ultimately, Hamas will get stronger, not weaker in the long run, if all of this civilian death allows them to recruit more effectively and ably inside Gaza."After hearing criticism, Murphy maintained his position."Following Hamas's horrific terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7th, I have been and remain in total support of doing everything possible to rescue every hostage and get Israel the aid it needs to defeat Hamas," Murphy said. "I also believe the high number of innocent civilians dying inside Gaza comes with both a moral cost and a strategic cost as Hamas uses those deaths as recruitment material, which ultimately threatens Israel's long-term security. Since this conflict began, I have met with members of the Jewish and Muslim communities who have been impacted and am grateful to those who share their ideas and opinions with me."