MSNBC host Joe Scarborough went off on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a Thursday panel over its slow responses to Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack.
The “Morning Joe” host went through the timeline of the attack and delayed response from the IDF, where it reportedly took between thirteen to twenty hours for the army to respond. Three hours into the attack, the IDF had not responded as civilians were killed, raped and taken hostage within that time frame. Another three hours went by without interference from the army.
“I still don’t understand what happened on October the 7th. I’m looking at a timeline in The New York Times here. Think about this. The attacks on Israel started at 6:30 in the morning. 6:30 in the morning. Residents went into hiding then, shootings and bombings. 9:30, three hours into the attack, hostages were already being taken to Gaza … Three hours into the attack, still no response from Israel. Three hours into the attack,” Scarborough said.
In the Nir Oz kibbutz, people waited more than eight-and-a-half hours for rescuers to arrive, and others in Be’eri waited around 13 hours, according to a timeline created by The New York Times. Attendees at the music festival waited eight hours, and those in the Kfar Aza area waited more than twenty hours. (RELATED: Scarborough Jumps In As Two Panelists Get Physically Closer To Each Other During Argument)
“Six hours in, again. Let’s wake up to this,” Scarborough continued. “Six hours in. Netanyahu’s government had not responded to all the rapings, to all the killings, to all the shootings of babies, to the burning of babies alive in their cribs, to pleas and calls that there’s a 67-year-old retired general who was riding his bike, heard about what was going on, rode his bike home, got a pistol, jumped in his car, grabbed a few people and started rescuing hostages on his own. And yet, it took eight hours after the attack, eight and a half hours after the attack, that you had evacuations, final evacuations of some of these places.”
“When did the rescues come? More than thirteen hours into the attack,” he added. “More than thirteen hours into the attack for some of these areas. More than twenty hours after the attack in other areas. Where is the army?”
He described the death of 22-year-old Amit Man, who Hamas terrorists fatally shot five hours into the attack, according to the Times. Other young women were repeatedly raped and killed by terrorists, or taken hostage into Gaza. Civilians were burned alive in their homes and vehicles, and some reports even revealed the beheadings of infants.
“This daughter texted her family after hiding from Hamas attackers for five hours,” Scarborough said. “Where … is … the … army? She was shot and killed. Others barricaded themselves in safe rooms and waited for as long as twenty-six hours for the rescuers to come. Israeli officials declined to answer questions on the timing on their responses. Yeah, really? In what world? In what world, Willie [Geist], are they allowed to sit back and say ‘We don’t have to tell you why it took twenty-six hours to respond to women being raped, why it took us thirteen hours to respond to babies being shot and burned, the way it took us five hours.’ They didn’t even respond in five hours.”
“A poor young woman, 22 years old, hiding from rapists and murderers. Begging, begging her own country, where was her own country? Where were the police? Where was the army? Where were they and why don’t we have a clear answer to this?” he continued.