U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton became the latest member of the Massachusetts delegation to call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Tuesday, suggesting in a nuanced statement that both sides bear a significant measure of blame for the ongoing war in Gaza and the human toll it has taken.
In the statement, Moulton faulted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for rejecting a two-state solution, restricting humanitarian aid and readying an offensive into the city of Rafah — where, as he put it, “kids are dying of famine and over a million innocents have no place to go.” Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war, Moulton said, has been “brutalist.”
But Moulton also said he supports Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas, which he called a “terrorist organization,” and added that the war would end immediately if Hamas surrendered. In addition, he said Hamas was responsible for the fact that a proposed temporary ceasefire deal to facilitate the exchange of hostages never occurred.
“Hamas must agree to join Israel in an immediate bilateral ceasefire and take steps towards long-term de-escalation. ... That ceasefire deal is our best hope to avoid more death, and it is long past time for the violence to stop,” Moulton said.
The tone of Moulton’s ceasefire call differed somewhat from that issued by Rep. Stephen Lynch in February. In his statement, Lynch focused less on Hamas’s culpability and more on what he called Israel’s seeming determination to “wrea[k] vengeance against innocent Palestinian civilians, mostly children.” Like Moulton, though, Lynch stressed that he believes Israel has a right to defend itself and to respond to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, which killed more than 1,100 people.
Current estimates place the Palestinian death toll from the subsequent war in Gaza at over 30,000.
Moulton, a Democrat and himself a military veteran, represents Greater Boston and North Shore communities from Lynn up to Amesbury. He was not immediately available for an interview.
Reps. Jim McGovern, Lori Trahan and Ayanna Pressley, as well as Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, have also called for a ceasefire and other steps aimed at containing or ending the conflict. (Warren, for example, has urged that no U.S. military aid be deployed to Israel that will be used against women and children.) Other delegation members have urged Israeli restraint and the pursuit of a two-state solution without expressly invoking that term.
Recently, after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that Israeli voters replace Netanyahu as prime minister, Rep. Jake Auchincloss — who has been the delegation’s staunchest supporter of Israel — said that, if he were a member of the Israeli parliament, “I would be breaking from the Netanyahu coalition and trying to force elections.”
However, Auchincloss added, that choice ultimately rests with the Israeli people.
