Steven Potter:
What should the United States do in the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas and other problems in that area?

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin:
Yeah, well, I want to reiterate, starting to talk about that conflict that I support Israel's right to defend itself. The Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas was unspeakable, but I also believe that the innocent loss of life in Gaza is heartbreaking and that that conflict must come to an end, that there must be a ceasefire. I started calling for a ceasefire last year, and the president has been engaged in negotiations with all the parties and has proposed conditions for a ceasefire time and time again. But the Netanyahu government has not agreed, and I think we have to apply more and more pressure for that to occur. The ultimate way forward is through a two-state solution, a Palestine and an Israel living peaceably side by side. The longer this conflict goes, the harder that is to ever achieve.

Steven Potter:
What should the United States do with the problems in the Middle East?

Eric Hovde:
We have to understand the geopolitical aspects of this war. It was Iran that, you know, Hamas is just a proxy of Iran, just like Hezbollah is. All their funding comes from Iran, all their direction comes from Iran. So we have to understand that component piece of it. And why did Iran strike and use Hamas to do that? Well, it was several-fold. One, they hit the United States while we were in conflict or trying to help Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, because Russia and Iran are very closely aligned. So that's distracting our forces and being supportive to Ukraine, number one. Number two, they hit their great enemy, Israel. And number three, they hit Saudi Arabia. You got to understand, in the Middle East, the two major powers that are in conflict is Iran and the Saudis, you know, the Shia and the Sunnis. And the Saudis were getting ready to normalize relationships with Israel through the Abraham Accords that President Trump had negotiated with a couple other Middle Eastern countries. So it was a strategic move by Iran to hit all their enemies. So it was another giant mistake by the Biden administration, which by the way, Senator Baldwin supported both the deal that Barack Obama made with Iran that sent a lot of money and helped their economy. And President Trump had basically had Iran on its knees, its economies was in shambles, and Biden released them and then was getting ready to transfer, again, U.S. dollars back to Iran. And the second their economy came back, they started funding these terrorist organizations. So I think it is imperative that we go back putting very punishing sanctions on Iran and hold them accountable, because they're the ones behind this whole thing.