'Make compromises': Virginia senators react to Netanyahu's congressional address

(WSET) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Wednesday.

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is one of over 70 politicians who missed Netanyahu’s address.

Sen. Kaine said he had a commitment on his calendar at William and Mary for months, so he couldn’t attend the prime minister’s address. He said he’s read coverage of the speech and has heard many of Netanyahu’s past addresses.

What I think people who attended the speech, and in my own reading of it, we’ve got to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” Sen. Kaine said. “That’s gonna be the best thing for Israel, the best thing for suffering Palestinians, the best thing for tension in the region. That has seemed tantalizingly close, but we’re not there yet, and I think that’s what the prime minister’s focus should be.”

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Kaine said a ceasefire is the only way the U.S. will be able to provide needed humanitarian aid to suffering Gazans and ultimately have a conversation of peace between the two states.

In response to the speech, thousands of protestors rallied on Capitol Hill opposing Netanyahu’s visit.

ABC13 asked the senator for his thoughts on that protest. He said they have the right to speak their minds, but violence isn’t acceptable.

I condemn any burning of the U.S. flag, any protest that gets into violence,” Sen. Kaine said. “I get why people feel strongly about it, I feel strongly about it, but you express that in a peaceful way, not in anything that suggests violence.”

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Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) attended Netanyahu’s address to Congress. He told reporters Thursday that he was deeply disappointed by one major aspect of the address. Sen. Warner said Netanyahu was impassioned and he agrees that Israel has the right to defend itself, but he said the prime minister didn’t acknowledge the suffering and death of more than 40,000 Palestinians.

Warner said there can’t be a release of hostages without a ceasefire in Gaza and he thinks the only way to get permanent peace is a two-state solution.

We’ve seen this hope for a ceasefire and those hostages released dashed time and again, and it’s gonna take both parties, both the Israeli government and the Hamas leadership, to make compromises,” Sen. Warner said.

Warner said he thinks those compromises will bring forward the hostage yield and an ultimate ceasefire.