Dennis Ross on Ynet
(Video: Shmulik Davidpur, Idan Erez )
Former White House special Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross told Ynet that Israel must demonstrate to the Biden administration that it has a plan for the day after the war to ensure Washington's support.
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The veteran diplomat said the White House is steadfast in its support of Israel's goal to liberate Gaza from Hamas and make sure it would not be able to threaten Israel again.
"The discussion of the day after is important to assure the administration that Israel does have a clear vision, that it knows the path it's on and that path has been explained," Ross told Ynet in an interview. "It is not just the issue of humanitarian assistance, it's also what is the actual pathway and is it one that the administration understands and finds credible."
Ross said that political pressure must be applied to Hamas while establishing a framework regarding the issue. "The world is focused on death and destruction in Gaza and that's understandable but what's been lost is the hostages. The reality of the hostage-taking, the kidnapping, that their holding these hostages, that they've never allowed the Red Cross any access to them, that no one knows if there's any medical treatment, probably not very much, all this needs to be front and center, it needs to be very visible."
Ross said that while Hamas purported to be an Islamic movement, its actions have been markedly un-Islamic. "Getting imams to come out and declare that this is un-Islamic is one step that should be taken," he said, stressing the importance of rallying Arab leaders who are supportive of the Palestinian cause to speak out about the negative effects of holding the hostages to Palestinian aspirations.
He urged nations sympathetic to Hamas, like Qatar, to shed their cloak of purported neutrality and apply pressure on the terrorist group to release the hostages.