On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants, launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing over 900 Israelis and reportedly kidnapping over a hundred more. In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza.

Of the roughly two million people who live in the Gaza Strip, half of them are younger than 19. Since 2007, Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza, and, according to the UN, 81.5% of the population lives in poverty. Human Rights Watch has described Gaza as an “open-air prison.”

Two days after the assault began, as bombs rain down on Gaza, far-right commentator Ben Shapiro used his Daily Wire show to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, attack liberal Democratic representatives as the “Jew-hating caucus,” advocate for the annexation of the Gaza Strip, and blame Hamas for Palestinian civilian casualties.

Shapiro, who infamously tweeted in 2010 that “Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage,” proclaimed on the Oct. 9, 2023 episode of The Ben Shapiro Show that “the antisemite caucus, the Jew-hating caucus — that would be the Squad: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush — demonstrated once again their true colors.”

Shapiro said that “there is no distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism” because the “whole purpose for anti-Zionism is to murder as many Jews as possible.”

He then began reading statements offered by the aforementioned “Squad” members which denounced the attack. Despite their condemnation, Shapiro claimed that the attack was “cheered and facilitated by members of Congress” and called for their expulsion.

Shapiro read a tweet by Rep. Ilhan Omar, who condemned the “horrific acts … against children, women, the elderly, and the unarmed people who are being slaughtered and taken hostage by Hamas” and called for “deescalation and ceasefire.” Shapiro responded by saying “anyone who calls for a ceasefire is a terrorist sympathizer under these circumstances.”

“If you call for a ceasefire after this, with 150 civilians who are still being held by Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, after the murder of hundreds of people by this terrorist group, you are an emissary of evil,” Shapiro said. “And Ilhan Omar is an emissary of evil and she’s matched in that evil by Rashida Tlaib.”

Rashida Tlaib issued a statement in which she wrote that she “grieve[s] the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day.” She also called for “lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”

Shapiro claimed that “there is no apartheid” in Israel, although various human rights groups and UN Special Rapporteurs have noted that Israeli policies are tantamount to colonialism and apartheid. He also dismissed the fact that Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for years because they gave “15,000 visas from the Gaza Strip into Israel for workers.”

He similarly lashed out at “BLM Congresswoman” Cori Bush, who said in an Oct. 7 statement that she was “heartbroken by the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel,” and “mourn[s] the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today.”

Shapiro said the “equivalence” between Israeli and Palestinian lives is “nonexistent” and blamed the deaths of Palestinian civilians on Hamas.

And in response to Rep. Bush’s statement that “a military response will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Shapiro said, “No it won’t. A military response will end the suffering of Israelis. That’s the idea. The idea is Israel kills enough of these sons of bitches that this is not a problem again.”

“The issue here is whether Israel provides a demilitarized zone that protects it’s own citizens,” he continued.

“Whether Israel provides enough of a military hand in this area to prevent more rocket fire on its citizens. Whether Israel annexes the Gaza Strip, as it damn-well should, because the Palestinians have proven themselves incapable of self-governance in the Gaza Strip by allowing Hamas to overrun them. And not only overrun them, govern them.”

Finally, Shapiro called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “trash” for her statement condemning Hamas “in the strongest possible terms” while also calling for an “immediate ceasefire and de-escalation.”

“You see, the skirt was too short. The Jews existed. And that was the big problem,” Shapiro said. “The Jews by existing in their storied homeland — the holy land of Israel — by existing, they earned this.”