Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide,” her post coming hours after President Donald Trump contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that there is no starvation in the war-torn region.
The Georgia MAGA firebrand posted a response on X to Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), who is Jewish and one of the most outspoken supporters of Israel in Congress, who has said that Gaza should “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.”
Fine added his opinion that the stark images and reports of starvation in Gaza “is all a lie anyway.”
“I can only imagine how Florida’s 6th district feels now that their Representative, that they were told to vote for, openly calls for starving innocent people and children,” MTG posted. Greene added that Fine’s comments would cause only more antisemitism.
“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza. But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful.”
Greene’s comments came after Trump, in a rare moment of disagreement with Netanyahu on Gaza, broke with the assessment of Israel’s prime minister. On Sunday, Netanyahu spoke at a Christian conference in Jerusalem, where he pushed back against accusations of starvation in Gaza.
“There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Netanyahu insisted.
But when meeting with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Trump said that Gaza had “real starvation.”
“I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry,” Trump said. Trump said that the United States would work with other countries to provide assistance to Gaza.
At the same time, the Trump administration has sought to crack down on pro-Palestine demonstrators in the United States, such as when it arrested Columbia University graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk.
Alongside Israel’s onslaught on Gaza that it launched after Hamas’s deadly terrorist attack on October 7th, 2023, Gaza now risks an outright famine. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said on Tuesday that “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out.” One United Nations representative said that Palestinians are beginning to resemble “walking corposes” and children are “emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying.”
This past weekend, Israel announced a humanitarian pause to let food and aid into Gaza. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 60,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the war.
Plenty of progressive Democrats have called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the first Palestinian-American congresswoman, as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
But Republicans, who largely support Israel because of evangelical Christian conservatives who believe that the creation of the state of Israel is an important part of End Times theology, remain supportive of the country.
Last month, House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Netanyahu to Congress.
At the same time, Greene had broken with Republicans and Trump on foreign policy, most recently on Trump’s decision to strike nuclear facilities in Iran.
In addition, earlier this month, she attempted to have a vote on cutting off aid to Israel, though all but six members – two Republicans and four Democrats – opposed it. She specifically criticized bombing of a Catholic church in Gaza.
