May 28, 2026 09:58 AM UTC

Disqualifying: Melat Kiros Rationalizes Killing Jews

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• by: Colorado Pols

Earlier this month, upstart Colorado Democratic congressional candidate Melat Kiros was interviewed by prominent and controversial podcast host Hasan Piker, who has cultivated much attention over his incendiary rhetoric on issues ranging from the killing of the CEO of United Health to his retracted assertion that “America deserved 9/11.” There was a time not long ago when someone who professed support for some of the highest-profile acts of violence in contemporary history, entitled to their free speech though they are, would not be considered auspicious venues for serious political candidates.

Back in March, 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark took note of an ad promoted by Kiros on social media that accused “establishment Democrats” like Kiros’ longtime incumbent opponent Rep. Diana DeGette of “fellating Israel.” Before her run for Congress, as readers may know, Kiros was fired from her job at a New York financial law firm after she wrote an open letter arguing the “geopolitical question of Israel’s legitimacy” is not inherently anti-Semitic. For the Jewish people, it most certainly is.

In her interview with Hasan Piker, Kiros elaborated on her view of the Israel/Gaza conflict, specifically the attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, in essence arguing like Piker did of America after 9/11 that Israel had the slaughter of over 1,000 civilians coming:

KIROS: Yeah. Um, you know, I I wrote the article cuz after October 7th, um, it felt like there were very different responses to what had happened…and I was like, what is missing from this conversation where I could look at this as, you know, an inevitable consequence of apartheid of of occupation, decades of occupation, and somebody else could look at what Israel’s response was and say, “No, that’s what we need to do. They need to be leveled. This is too much of a unique evil.” So, I wrote that article trying to add in some of the context that I think was missing for some folks…

While telling the story of the letter Kiros wrote that cost her her career in New York, Kiros dismissed the Hamas terror attack on October 7th, 2023 as the “inevitable consequence” of Israeli “apartheid.” To unpack what that fully means, Brandon Rattiner of the Jewish Community Relations Council responded to Kiros’ comments in an open letter yesteday:

The only time you referenced the Oct. 7 attacks themselves was to describe them as an “inevitable consequence of apartheid.” You argued that violence persists because there is “rarely ever . . . accountability for the perpetrators of that violence,” yet never once grappled with Hamas’s role—or the broader role of Iran and its regional proxies—in perpetuating violence, terror, and instability throughout the region…

[M]any Jews watching saw their fears and lived experiences either ignored or treated as morally insignificant. When asked whether the United States should provide Israel with defensive weapons, you responded with the quip that “a weapon is a weapon,” as though there is no meaningful distinction between a sword and a shield, and as though the countless civilian lives saved by defensive systems did not matter.

Our purpose today is not to take a side in the morally perilous debate over the ongoing war in Gaza, except to be clear that the present conflict began with the October 7th, 2023 attack by the terrorist group Hamas that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. Americans have the freedom to take sides in this conflict, and the long history of conflict in the region, in safety on the other side of the world. But if you believe that violence against civilians is always wrong, which is a value that Americans generally hold, you can’t make excuses for Hamas’ killing of Israeli civilians on October 7th.

That’s exactly what Kiros just did. Justifying the murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians, and the capture of hundreds more to be used as bargaining chips, goes distantly beyond being critical of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. You can criticize Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza without endorsing Hamas’ killing of civilians in Israel. That is in fact the only responsible position, and the only position compatible with the values that American Democrats claim to espouse.

Despite having made a splash at the Democratic assembly among a small number of Denver party activists, Melat Kiros has now disclosed a truly extreme position on the foreign policy issue that defines her candidacy–one of the few positions in which Kiros offers any meaningful contrast against her historically very progressive opponent. And it’s a position that most voters, and despite the hype we firmly believe most Democrats, do not share.

Unless you really think, like Melat Kiros apparently does, Israeli civilians deserved to die on October 7th.

That can never be a Colorado value.