By Sandy Fitzgerald(NEWSMAX)
There is “no real solution” for the Gaza Strip moving forward, leaving Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip rather than reaching an agreement with the Palestinians about the region, according to Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States.
“We’re not going to send the army in there and lose a thousand kids,” Oren tells CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett in this week’s “The Takeout” podcast, adding at the end of the day, there will be nobody who will be taking the “keys to Gaza.”
“It’s just a mess,” Oren who served from 2009 to 2018 under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continued. “The West Bank situation right now, there’s really no way forward because Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t have the authority, the legitimacy to sign a peace agreement if he wanted to.”
Israel also doesn’t “have a government,” said Oren. “We’re about to go into our fifth election in four years, three years, really. There’s not even the leadership to negotiate with.”
He also insisted that it was not Israel’s intention to kill civilians in apartments in Gaza, and called the situation “tragic” but still he said he doesn’t see any way it could be handled differently.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when visiting Israel this week, said the United States is committed to helping Isreal replenish its “Iron Dome” system, which intercepted most of the more than 3,000 rockets Hamas had launched into Israel. The Biden administration also plans to provide another $75 million in aid to the Palestinians.
Oren said the “Iron Dome” is a “two-edged sword” that resulted in an imbalance in numbers of casualties that were suffered this month, with 14 Israelis being killed compared to 250 Palestinians.
“On our side, you had (comedian) John Oliver saying, hey, like 10 Israelis being killed, but one hundred Palestinians are being killed,” Oren said, responding to criticism from the HBO star. “Well, I’m sorry, John, that we don’t have more people being killed. But in a way, if one of Hamas’s aims is to delegitimize us and get us labeled war crimes — Iron Dome, it’s a great tool.”
The Palestinian casualties were also higher because Hamas integrates into neighborhoods, Oren claimed.
“I’ve been in combat in Gaza,” he said. “It is a hellhole. One of the reasons that there are civilian casualties, because Hamas is built into these neighborhoods, and it’s built under the neighborhood … when you blow up a tunnel under an apartment house, there’s a good chance that now is going to come down.”
Blinken also announced that $5.5 million in disaster relief was coming for the Gaza Strip, but Oren warned that Hamas’ control will make it hard for U.S. aid to reach the Palestinians.
“You think you’re going to move $75 million into Gaza and Hamas is not going to get a piece of it?” he said. “Hamas gets a piece of everything. You have to be aware of that.”
He also said there is some question about the true number of casualties because “they come from the Hamas medical board, which is always suspect. But we actually know the names of the people who were killed and about 80% of those people were terrorists…it’s like if the police interrupted a bank robbery and they shot four bank robbers and they accidentally shot three hostages who were being held. So the police killed seven people. That’s that would be the equivalent from Israel’s perspective.”
