"The world community has isolated Israel and said, you're on your own. And I think as long as Israel is in that position, its only choice is to destroy Hamas."
Kennedy, who is running against both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump, is facing the steep uphill battle of an American third-party candidate.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll puts his support among registered voters at 15%, versus 39% for Biden and 38% for Trump.
And the 70-year-old environmental attorney understands he needs to distinguish himself from the two major-party candidates.
"I think people are looking for an alternative." [FLASH] "How do we get them to let go of the fear and vote instead for hope, for faith in the future, for somebody who inspires them, for somebody they like?"
Biden has defended Israel's right to respond to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, but the president has stepped up pressure on the Middle East ally to reach a six-week ceasefire in the conflict.
Kennedy said he saw no reason for a truce.
"Israel was in a ceasefire on October 7th. There's been five ceasefires, and each one has been used by Hamas to rearm, to rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different this time? You know, I think Israel understands that. For everybody to progress, Hamas has to be destroyed."
The Reuters poll shows Kennedy slightly more popular with voters 18 through 39 than he is with voters over 40, a popularity he could put in jeopardy with his support for Israel.
He said he didn't care.
"I'm not concerned about whether people disagree with me. If somebody shows me that I'm wrong about an issue, I'm going to change my opinion. But let's talk about facts."
Kennedy is the nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
The library of his Spanish-style home is adorned with heirlooms, taxidermied animals and carved wooden ducks.
Outside his family name, he is perhaps most known for his anti-vaccine stance, a position that got him temporarily banned from Instagram in 2021 for spreading misinformation about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He disputes being labeled anti-vaccine, and acknowledges that his positions and his political challenge to Biden put him at odds with relatives deeply tied to the Democratic Party.
"My family has a long history with Joe Biden. Joe Biden has a bust of my father behind him at the Oval Office. There are five members of my family who work for the Biden administration or directly with the Biden administration. There are many, many others who are running NGOs that have relationships with the government. And I understand that my candidacy, my challenge of President Biden is troubling to them. I don't begrudge them their right to disagree with it."
Kennedy is unlikely to earn enough votes to win the White House. But strategists told Reuters he might pull enough support to deny Biden's re-election and put Trump into office.
