Former US diplomat Dennis Ross said he supports the war on Gaza until the elimination of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), stressing that it is the desire of Arab leaders, not just Israel and the United States.

In an article in the New York Times, Ross added that there are many Israelis who believe that their living inside Israel after what happened on the seventh of this month is "at stake."

For them, Hamas's continued means continued attacks on Israel, and whether or not Lebanese Hezbollah now declares a "real war" on Israel, will no doubt do so later, because it is the goal of the two "Iranian-backed groups" that has made Israel an unlivable place. Ross quoted an Israeli military commander as saying: "If we don't defeat Hamas, we can't live here."

Ross is currently a consultant at The Washington Institute and was one of the architects of what has been described as peace processes under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Arab leaders

"Israel is not the only one that thinks it has to defeat Hamas," Ross said, adding: "Over the past couple of weeks, when I have spoken to Arab officials in different parts of the region that I have known for a long time, every one of them told me that Hamas in Gaza must be destroyed."

"If Hamas is seen as victorious, it will legitimize the group's rejection ideology, give leverage and momentum to Iran and its collaborators, and put their governments on the defensive," they were quoted as saying.

He explained that those Arab leaders who spoke to him stated their position "in private" while their public positions were otherwise, because they knew that as Israel's retaliation continued and Palestinian casualties and suffering mounted, their citizens would be angry.

So those leaders need to be seen as defending the Palestinians, at least rhetorically.

Land invasion

Ross noted that few Arab countries had dared to publicly condemn "the massacre committed by Hamas that killed more than 1400,<> people in Israel."

The pro-Israel US diplomat stressed that the current ceasefire means the victory of Hamas, which will rebuild what was destroyed during this war, as it did during the wars of 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, and will enter in the future in a new military tour with Israel.

Ross said Hamas would not end with aerial bombardment, no matter how fierce, and a ground invasion posed a great danger to Israeli soldiers.

The US diplomat presented his plan to defeat Hamas, which entails the liquidation of its leaders and the destruction of its military infrastructure, which makes it unable to obstruct a formula for disarmament in Gaza, and makes it unable to wage war, according to him.

A loving advice to Israel

Ross stressed that if a ground invasion succeeds, it requires that Israeli forces not remain in Gaza forever, and on the contrary must work to hand over power to a Palestinian leadership of technocrats or from the diaspora, with governance under international cover.

He explained that this is what the United States must work to achieve by exploiting the UN umbrella, or even by implementing French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to use the "international coalition against the Islamic State" to fight Hamas.

The pro-Israel diplomat stressed that it must make it clear that it is fighting Hamas and not the Palestinians, and therefore it must find safe places for them, and enable international organizations to open a relief line for them even from the Israeli side, stressing that it must assure everyone - specifically to its neighbors - that it will not remain inside Gaza.