U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton called this week for an immediate bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. With that call, Moulton joined four other Massachusetts representatives and both of the state's senators in publicly demanding a halt to the war in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people have been killed since October.

But in an interview with GBH's Talking Politics, Moulton stressed that his ceasefire call differs from those issued by some of his congressional colleagues.

"A bilateral ceasefire means a hostage deal ... the deal that's currently on the table that Israel has been trying to negotiate with Hamas," Moulton said. "And currently Hamas, not Israel, is putting up the roadblocks to that deal.

"This is quite distinct from people on the far left who are calling for a unilateral ceasefire — just stopping the war, stop trying to get rid of Hamas and do nothing to get the hostages back," Moulton added. "I'm certainly not calling for that."

In addition to calling Hamas a terrorist organization whose continued existence is bad for the Palestinian people, Moulton also had harsh words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose prosecution of the war in Gaza Moulton has previously termed "brutalist."

"There are massive humanitarian concerns that we can all acknowledge ... The way [Netanyahu is] attacking this problem ultimately makes it worse," Moulton said. "Support for Hamas is rising. There's a lot of evidence that recruiting has been good for Hamas, that they're actually getting more adherents to the cause."

Moulton spoke with GBH News immediately after voting for a $1.2 trillion spending package that averts a possible shutdown of the federal government, a deal that received bipartisan support but that Moulton said could imperil Republican Mike Johnson's tenure as speaker of the House.

"One of the craziest Republicans [U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia] already filed a motion to vacate, to set in process the maneuver that ultimately cost Kevin McCarthy his job as the last speaker," Moulton said. "So it is a legitimate threat."

Moulton also discussed legislation he's filed to create a high-speed rail network in the United States, as well as his recent vote for legislation that could ban TikTok if the popular social media platform isn't spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

Moulton argues that ByteDance is effectively a surrogate for the Chinese Communist Party.

"If CNN or WGBH was owned by the Soviet Union in the heart of the Cold War, we wouldn't say that that's a good idea," Moulton said. "And CNN and WGBH don't influence our kids, our children, nearly to the extent that TikTok does. So there are real, serious dangers."

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