Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Cor­nel West and run­ning mate blame Israel for Oct. 7 in bid to court pro-Pales­tin­ian vot­ers

Presidential candidate Cornel West and running mate blame Israel for Oct. 7 in bid to court pro-Palestinian voters

Inde­pen­dent pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Cor­nel West and his vice pres­i­den­tial choice defend­ed their anti-Israel rhetoric on Thurs­day night in an effort to court Demo­c­ra­t­ic pro-Pales­tin­ian vot­ers.
West’s run­ning mate, Meli­na Abdul­lah, said she sup­ports a state­ment put out by the Black Lives Mat­ter Grass­roots on Tues­day, which claimed Israel was to blame for Hamas’s upris­ing, and claimed the attack on Oct. 7 was an “act of self-defense.” 
“I think it’s real­ly impor­tant to under­stand where upris­ings come from, even when we may dis­agree with tac­tics that are used,” Abdul­lah told CNN host Abby Phillips. “I find it real­ly trou­bling that we are con­stant­ly asked to con­demn Hamas. I’m not a mem­ber of Hamas. I find it even more trou­bling that an entire state has been built on the geno­cide of a peo­ple, and I think that we have to start with that first.”
West, who has called for a per­ma­nent cease­fire and the with­draw­al of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, also blamed Israel for the war between the Mid­dle East­ern nation and the ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion. H …