Fine (right) being sworn in as a U.S. Representative by House Speaker Mike Johnson (left), April 2025. Photograph Source: Office of Speaker Mike Johnson – Public Domain
On May 22, Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC as they were leaving an event for young diplomats. The alleged shooter is thirty-one-year-old pro-Palestine activist Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. Video taken at the scene by an eyewitness shows Rodriguez, shouting “Free Palestine” as he was taken into custody. “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” Rodriguez told the arresting officers.
The day after the shootings, Randy Fine, a Republican who represents Florida’s 6th congressional district, appeared on FoxNews.[1] Fine, who describes himself on his personal page on X (formerly Twitter) as “Jewish and proud. Zionist,” said:
“This is what globalizing the intifada looks like. Palestinianism is built on violence. … This is a culture built on violence and we need to start to treat it that way. … We need to start to call evil for what it is, and not make excuses for it. And the fact of the matter is, the Palestinian cause is an evil one. …”
Asked about the possibility of a cease-fire in Gaza, Fine said:
“The only end of the conflict is complete and total surrender by those who support Muslim terror. In World War II, we did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis, we did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture and it needs to be defeated.”
Tucker Carlson, of all people, called Fine’s May 23 remarks “evil” and wondered why Fine has not been expelled from Congress.
In fairness to the congressman—fairness that Fine does not extend to Palestinians and Muslims—and in order to avoid a possible lawsuit for defamation[2] it is barely possible that when Fine said, “We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here,” the word that refers to unconditional surrender, not to “nuk[ing] the Japanese. If that is the case, then all Fine was calling for was Hamas’ unconditional surrender, not nuclear war on Gaza. However, every news story and commentary I have seen takes the position that Fine was calling for nuclear weapons to be used on Gaza. I think that’s a more likely interpretation.
Fine has embraced the nickname the “Hebrew Hammer,” which will be a terrific stage name if Fine ever joins the WWE (perhaps Education Secretary Linda McMahon could arrange an interview). Fine has a history of hateful rhetoric toward Muslims and Palestinians. Of Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim and Palestinian American, Fine said: “She’s not a terrorist sympathizer, she’s a terrorist.” (Speaking of defamation, since Fine made this remark on a podcast and not on the floor of Congress, he may have opened himself to an action for defamation by Tlaib.)
I like to think that Fine is just grandstanding and not inciting genocide. Fine could be trying to distract his constituents from his enthusiastic vote for Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which among other horrors, would eviscerate Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP for millions of Americans.
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As yet, few public figures are promoting a nuclear strike on Gaza. President Donald Trump endorsed Fine’s run for Congress, but to my knowledge, has said nothing about Gaza and nuclear weapons. That’s not surprising considering that Trump wants to turn Gaza into a luxury resort (but not for Palestinians). In any event, the president has his hands full trying to dissuade Israel from launching a nuclear attack on Iran.
The most prominent advocate of a nuclear strike on Gaza is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham is no friend to Palestinians. Recently, Graham turned his attention to the Madleen, a civilian vessel carrying 12 unarmed activists from the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Up until June 9, the Madleen was en route to Gaza; its aim: to break the Israeli blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. Responding to a rumor that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was on board (she was), Graham posted on X: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim.”
It turns out they did not need to swim. On June 9, the Madleen was intercepted and boarded by the Israeli military. The Madleen‘s passengers are now in Israeli custody. Israel says it expects to return them to their home countries.
Israel’s Minister of Defense Israel Katz smeared Thunberg and her fellow passengers as “antisemites” and “propagandists for Hamas.”
Returning to Senator Graham: during a May 12, 2024 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Graham told Kristen Welker that Israel is facing an existential threat. That’s nonsense. It’s the people of Gaza, not Israel, who are locked in an existential struggle. Gaza has never been able to destroy Israel. Most of Gaza’s population is in flight and Gaza can’t even adequately defend itself against an enemy that is armed to the teeth.
Graham asked: “Why’s it OK for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war?” But it wasn’t “OK,” Senator. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilian population centers, not military targets, which made bombing them a war crime. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not justify using nuclear bombs against Gaza. That did not stop Graham from advising Israel to “do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state.” Graham repeated: “whatever you have to do” twice.
Two lawmakers in the House have also trotted out the supposed Hiroshima/Nagasaki precedent. Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC-3) did so during a May 14, 2024 Newsmax interview. So did Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI-5). At an invitation-only townhall on March 25, 2024, Walberg told constituents that “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.” Congressman Walberg said later that his reference to Nagasaki and Hiroshima was only a “metaphor” for the need to bring the war in Gaza to a “swift” end.)
In Israel, Knesset member Tally Gotliv demanded in an October 9 post on X that Israel use its nuclear-capable Jericho Missile, which she called a “Doomsday Weapon.”
Not to be outdone, Amihai Eliyahu, a minor cabinet minister who represents the far-right Jewish Power Party, caused a stir during a November 5, 2023 radio interview. Eliyahu said that using nuclear weapons “to kill everyone [in Gaza] is one way to go.” Using nuclear weapons was acceptable because, Eliyahu said, there are “no non-combatants in Gaza.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded that Eliyahu’s remark was “not based in reality” and that Israel would continue to follow international law (sic). Two months later, on January 24, 2024, Eliyahu reiterated his call to use a “nuclear bomb” n Gaza.
The truth of the matter is that Israel does not need to use nuclear arms in order to destroy Gaza. It’s doing just fine with conventional weapons alone. 54,700 dead Gazans can attest to that.
Ever since the US dropped an atom bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 there has been an unofficial taboo on the use of nuclear arms in warfare. It would be an inestimable tragedy if that taboo were broken now.
Notes.
[1] Representative Fine’s comments begin at 12:54.
[2] Fine wrote on X that he is “exploring taking legal action” against Ynet News for quoting him as saying “we should nuke Gaza,” which Fine calls “a fabricated quote.”
