President Joe Biden must not blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel for the continuing violence in Gaza, as an immediate cease-fire will depend on constant pressure on Hamas, Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Newsmax Tuesday.
"It's very important that the president not say Netanyahu has not done enough, but to say that we have to continue the pressure to bring all of those who supported Hamas [and] now demand that they release the hostages and that they put down their arms," Hoenlein said in an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "That's how you get a cease-fire immediately."
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He added that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has "no interest in negotiating" anything but an "insurance policy for himself."
"He cares nothing about the people of Gaza," said Hoenlein. "This is not about Palestinians. This is about Sinwar retaining the power and the ability to come out afterward, and say that a terrorist entity emerged whole and was able to continue their horrific acts. The problem is that we've given them a pass until now."
First, the leadership of Hamas should be arrested, he said.
"We should put the pressure through Qatar and others that have been supplying them with funds and assisting them and abetting them," said Hoenlein.
He added that work should also be done to go "after the head of the octopus Iran, which controls Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, all of those who are challenging us throughout the region."
Hoenlein said that he does believe a deal can be reached.
"But instead of putting the pressure on Israel to limit their activities, perhaps if they had been allowed to do this right away in the beginning the situation would be different," he said.
"We understand nobody wants to see the loss of life of Palestinians or anyone else, but who is responsible?" said Hoenlein. "It's not Israel. Israel didn't start this, but Israel has a responsibility to make sure that they can emerge from this victorious. It will undermine the whole region. And remember, this is a war against America as much as it's a war against Israel."
Over the weekend, Israelis crowded the streets to call for the release of the hostages and to protest Netanyahu after the discovery of six hostages' bodies in a tunnel under the Gazan city of Rafah. The five men and one woman, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were shot and killed by Hamas, who has threatened to kill more of the hostages its militants seized last Oct. 7 during their raids on Israel.
Hoenlein said he understands the frustrations of the Israeli protesters.
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However, it's important to remember that even if there are "hundreds of thousands" of people protesting, that represents just a small percentage of the Israeli people.
Netanyahu has no choice but to continue to root out Hamas, said Hoenlein.
"If you don't extract them from the roots, they're just going to grow back and come back more virulent, stronger, with better weapons, and the next threat will not be 6,000 terrorists crossing the border from Gaza into Israel, but will be many more with more sophisticated rockets and equipment," said Hoenlein.
"There has to be a concerted effort both to end this conflict on legitimate grounds, which means the destruction of Hamas and its ability to reemerge and to make sure that we create a new stable situation," he added.
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