Former President George W. Bush, who launched multiple wars in the Middle East, issued his first comments on the Hamas attacks targeting Israel and the ensuing conflict.
He added, “Hamas is a political organization; they do not reflect the majority of the Palestinians. And don’t be surprised if Israel takes whatever actions necessary to defend itself.”
Conceding that the situation will be “difficult for a while” in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a “very seasoned military.”
“But they just called up 300,000 reservists, most of them probably can’t fire a rifle,” President Bush said. “We'll find out what he’s made out of.”
When he was asked about Iran and whether it was involved, the former president said he doesn’t have any intelligence anymore. “Iran’s been pretty good at using surrogate terrorist groups,” he stated.
“But I never thought we should try to accommodate Iran [in] any way, shape or form,” he said, possibly referring to a deal that was brokered by the Obama administration in 2015 that stipulated Iran would eliminate its stockpile of certain forms of enriched uranium.
“I always felt the objective ought to be to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon to prevent a cataclysmic event in the Middle East. And these are the kinds of people that, if you show softness, they will take advantage of it,” the former president added.
President Bush also said that some critics have said that the United States “shouldn’t get involved” or “who cares?” In response, he said, “Well, we should. We should care.”
The former president stated that calls for negotiation with Hamas would be a tactical error. “Negotiating with killers is not an option for the elected government of Israel,” he added.
The 43rd president continued: “In a democracy, the people’s voices matter. And there’s gonna be a weariness. You watch. The world is going to be, ‘OK, let’s negotiate. Israel’s got to negotiate.’ They are not going to negotiate. These people have played their cards. They want to kill as many Israelis as they can. Negotiating with killers is not an option for the elected government of Israel.”
“And so we’re just gonna have to remain steadfast. But it’s not going to take long for people to say, ‘This is going on too long. Surely there’s a way to settle this, with negotiations. Both sides are guilty.’ My view is one side is guilty, and it’s not Israel.”
Some observers have said that Israel’s response to the Hamas terrorist attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, risks the increase of a broader or more protracted conflict that could escalate the death toll. The Israeli Defense Forces has since launched the most significant airstrikes on Gaza, where Hamas operates, in its history and reports suggest the country could invade the restive territory.
The Israeli army ordered residents to evacuate Gaza early Friday ahead of an anticipated ground invasion. Later Friday, the Israeli military said that its ground forces are now operating inside Gaza for the first time, saying they were deployed to fight Hamas, search for evidence, and destroy weapons.
President Bush faced similar allegations of escalating the conflict following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that left 3,000 dead in the United States.
Soon after Sept. 11, the Bush administration launched an invasion in Afghanistan, which had sheltered top al-Qaeda terrorist leaders. Two years later, the U.S. and allied forces invaded Iraq under the pretext that the country’s then-leader, Saddam Hussein, had possession of weapons of mass destruction—as the Bush administration sought to tie the country to the Sept. 11 attacks.
No weapons of mass destruction were ever found, leading to a significant drop in public support for both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the years. The United States pulled out of Afghanistan in mid-2021 and out of Iraq in 2011.
