Stark footage of Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities leaves US senators silent and tearful
Members of both parties shaken after viewing 43 minutes of harrowing footage shown at a pivotal moment for Israel, which relies on American support to continue battling Hamas
WASHINGTON (JTA) — If there’s a trait that unites the 100 members of the US Senate, it is volubility: These folks, who invented the filibuster, know how to talk.
It was remarkable to see them then exiting a screening room on Tuesday in the bowels of the Capitol building, barely able to shape their mouths into a single word.
The unusual silence came after two senators, Jacky Rosen, a Jewish Nevada Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, screened for their fellow senators 43 minutes of harrowing footage of the carnage Hamas terrorists committed on October 7 when gunmen massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with stunning brutality, and took 240 more hostage in the Gaza Strip, among them many women, children, and the elderly.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, said as she walked away, her eyes filled with tears.
Israel’s government, which produced the film to combat denial about the horrors the unfolded during the attack, has made the video available for private screenings, on strict condition that its images are not shared. It has been shown in statehouses and Hollywood, and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the Democratic minority in the US House of Representatives, has screened the video for House members.
Members of both parties shaken after viewing 43 minutes of harrowing footage shown at a pivotal moment for Israel, which relies on American support to continue battling Hamas
www.timesofisrael.com