Former New Jersy Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie spoke to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday about the situation in Israel and his recent trip to the country.
At the start of the interview, Christie showed a dog tag he received from families of individuals taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 8th with the inscription "Bring them home now."
"I really believe that it's time for the Israeli government and the US government to work out a fair deal to bring some of these hostages home. The torture the families are going through is extraordinary, and they need to get their family members home. There are some children who are hostages and some folks in their 70s who are being held hostage, their health certainly must be at risk. So I would support a deal that is fair and equitable and one that gets these people home now."
Christie was also asked whether he believed Israel was following international law, to which he answered with a strong affirmative. "I absolutely do think Israel is following international law. I will tell you, unlike a lot of other people who are expressing opinions about this, I was there and spoke to the leaders in Israel. I spoke to the President of Israel. I spoke to members of the Israeli Defense Forces. I was 600 yards from the Gaza border. I went everywhere in Israel to see what was going on, and they are doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. The problem is that Hamas is forcing these civilians to stay in places where Israel's warning them out of, dropping hundreds of leaflets and sending hundreds of thousands of text messages to warn people away from areas before they're attacked. It is Hamas that is doing this."
He noted: "And let us not forget, for those who are advocating for a ceasefire, there was a ceasefire on October 6th, and it was Hamas that broke it on October 7th. I will tell you, I saw the 43-minute video that's been put together by the Israeli government from raw footage from not only Israeli sources but also from body cams and dash cams from the Hamas terrorists. What they did on October 7th was the greatest violation of international law and the greatest violation of humanity, and the worst part was that they did it with joy."
The former governor was also asked about the situation in Judea and Samaria and what the interviewer referred to as "settler violence." Christie said that the US needs to tell Israel to "get control over what's happening with settlers" but refused to call for a building freeze in the region, saying he would not want to "dictate policy to the Israeli government." According to him, "That kind of violence in the West Bank is a distraction from what needs to be done, which is to protect Israel's territorial integrity, protect the safety and security of their citizens, and to make sure that Hamas' capability to commit this type of act again degraded militarily."