Abrams: Arab leaders want Hamas crushed
"Israelis cannot live a normal life as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad control Gaza," said Elliott Abrams.
Former United States deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams says Arab governments privately want Israel to crush Hamas but can’t say so in public.
The former senior US official was speaking in Melbourne ahead of a function organised by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council last week.
He said, “Israelis cannot live a normal life as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad control Gaza and attack Israel from Gaza. So, they have to be eliminated as military threats, completely eliminated.”
Abrams said after that has been accomplished there will be many difficult questions, such as who governs Gaza.
“But all of those second and third steps come only after Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been crushed,” he said.
Abrams acknowledged that what comes after Hamas is destroyed will be very complex.
“There is no easy formula for doing this. It’s very difficult and American generals and others who’ve been through Fallujah and other places like it have commented in the last few days about how difficult it is,” he said.
Although many people seem to be opposing Israel going into Gaza, Abrams said people should not take recent statements by Arab governments opposing Israel’s actions against Hamas at face value.
“Every one of them wants Israel to win this war and defeat Hamas. They know that Hamas is a death cult, they know that Hamas is their enemy … and they want Israel to win,” he said.
Abrams, who has served in foreign policy positions for Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, said he has been in the White House for eight years and in the State Department for 10 and knows what Arab leaders say behind the scenes.
“They’ll never say it in public because they have public opinion to worry about even though they’re not democracies. But behind the scenes, they know what Hamas is and they know that stability and peace in the region depends on it being crushed,” he said.
Abrams was very positive about the way the Biden administration has handled the situation, saying the US President’s recent visit during wartime was unprecedented and extraordinary in the level of emotion.
“There is extremely broad backing in the United States for Israel, and it’s gone up in the last 10 days. So I think the United States is going to play an important role here in giving Israel time to do what it needs to do in Gaza” he said.
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