Colorado Democratic socialist candidate Melat Kiros recently stated that the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel were "inevitable consequences" stemming from U.S. and Israeli foreign policy and actions in the Middle East.

In a June 22 interview with 9News, Kiros clarified comments she made on the Twitch stream of commentator Hasan Piker, where she described the October 7 attacks as "an inevitable consequence of apartheid, of occupation, decades of occupation." She pushed back on the idea that Israel "had it coming" but emphasized the importance of understanding the "conditions" that led to the violence.

"It’s about understanding the conditions in which violence and war happen, right?" Kiros said. "Israel is a country that has been accused of apartheid and occupation for decades now and has been able to resist any kind of change despite all of the frustration on the world stage that people have had for the conditions that Palestinians have been living in."

When asked by 9News journalist Kyle Clark if she believed the 9/11 attacks were also an "inevitable consequence" due to U.S. foreign policy, Kiros responded, "Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place."

Before her current campaign, Kiros was dismissed from her position at the Sidley Austin law firm in 2023. This followed the publication of an open letter where she criticized law firms for their responses to antisemitism on college campuses. Kiros argued that such actions by firms could chill future lawyers' employment prospects for criticizing Israeli government actions and its legitimacy.

"By conflating 'calls for the elimination of the Israeli state' with anti-Semitism, you delegitimize any solution that forces Israel to reckon with its colonial role in Palestine, including one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike — one state, under the historic Palestine, where all citizens are equal under the rule of law, regardless of religion or ethnicity," Kiros wrote in her letter.

Kiros is one of several candidates supported by the Democratic Socialists of America who are seeking to unseat incumbent Democratic politicians.