Whoopi Goldberg seemingly threw off Alyssa Farah Griffin when she asked, “Who are the bad guys?” during a tense conversation about the Israel-Hamas conflict on this morning’s episode of The View.
Sara Haines closed out the first Hot Topics segment of the day by acknowledging the Bibas family in Israel. Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were kidnapped in their home by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The three were reportedly killed by their captors, despite Hamas’ claims that they perished in an Israeli airstrike. Their bodies were returned to Israel last week, with Hamas initially handing over a body that didn’t belong to Shiri.
“There are 60 more hostages,” Haines said, pointing out that this incident is another “reminder that they’re still there.”
Goldberg, for her part, added, “There is nothing positive about any of this. For everyone who’s affected, our hearts should go out. For everyone who’s affected, all the families, all the children. This is horrifying.
“I just find it so shocking that when we talk about things like Hamas and I look at where we’re putting our energy, I think, ‘Who are the bad guys now?’” Goldberg said, earning quick responses from Joy Behar and Griffin, who told her that “Hamas in the one who attacked” Israel first and that they “are the bad guys.”
But Goldberg continued, saying, “Hamas is the bad guy. But what happened to Russia? Is Russia not bad with all they’ve been doing?”
Sunny Hostin then pointed out that Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has an “international criminal court warrant against him.”
“There’s no equivocation of Netanyahu and Hamas. Hamas needs to be destroyed,” Griffin fired back, to which Hostin replied, “She’s asking who are the bad guys.”
Goldberg told Griffin that she was “missing [her] point.”
“My point is, when do we stop saying it’s these folks or these folks? When do we say, here’s the enemy. This is what the enemy does. This is what the enemy does to children. This is what the enemy does to children in Africa. This is what the enemy does to children all over the world because they’re the enemy. That’s what the enemies do,” she said. “Why are we supportive of enemies that we know our sons and grandfathers have fought in the past? What’s happening, y’all?”
The longtime moderator concluded her rant by saying she has “faith in the American public.”
“I don’t always get it right. They don’t always get it right. But we’ll figure out the answers at some point, I’m sure,” she said.
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.