U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has a plan to rescue Hamas from the destruction it so deserves.
This reminds me of when Dennis Ross appeared on MSNBC on November 21, 2023. Then, Ross said that “the way to end the war in Gaza” would be for Israel to allow the Hamas leadership to leave the territory in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. Ross said that he hoped the Biden administration would promote such a proposal. Now Witkoff is channeling Ross and his Biden-era playbook.
In 2023, Ross cited a precedent: Israel’s decision in 1982, under U.S. pressure, to allow Yasser Arafat and the rest of the PLO terrorist leadership to escape from Beirut.
At that time, Ross forgot to mention what happened after Arafat was allowed to leave Lebanon. The PLO and Arafat did not ride off into the sunset of some quiet and peaceful retirement. He sailed to Tunisia, set up PLO terrorist headquarters there, and embarked on twenty more years of deadly terrorism—shootings and stabbings, bus bombings and intifadas. Thousands of Israelis were murdered or maimed.
And now Witkoff wants Israel to repeat that tragic mistake—this time with the much more dangerous Hamas. Once again, an American envoy wants to see terrorist leaders rescued, which would leave them with the capacity to orchestrate more October 7-style massacres.
Dennis Ross has never been very good at learning the lessons—even the lessons from his own actions—but one would have hoped that Witkoff was made of better stuff.
This is, after all, the same Dennis Ross who publicly admitted—on the op-ed page of The Washington Post—that he pressured Israel to let Hamas import concrete. Ross insisted the concrete would be used to build houses. Israel was afraid it would be used to build terror tunnels. But under Ross’s pressure, the Israelis gave in, despite the danger.
Years later, when the damage was already done, Ross admitted that the Israelis were right to be worried.
Israeli families paid the price for Ross’s mistake. Hundreds of innocent Israelis—and other foreign nationals, including American citizens—were kidnapped and taken to those terrorist tunnels, which were built with the concrete Ross helped bring into Gaza.
Former American diplomats often lead a charmed life. Ross and the other ex-Middle East envoys—Daniel Kurtzer, Aaron Miller, Richard Haass, David Makovsky—have comfortable, paid positions in various think tanks and universities. Perched in those ivory towers, they dish out unsolicited advice on how Israel should conduct itself.
They are quoted regularly in The New York Times, and appear frequently on television shows where they are asked softball questions. They are treated as if the fact that they were involved in past Middle East diplomatic efforts somehow makes them experts on how to bring peace to that part of the world today.
Nobody seems to notice that all their diplomacy, spanning over three decades, were utter failures. Not only did they fail to achieve anything remotely resembling peace—they actually made things worse. Much worse.
They pressured Israel to make one-sided concessions that were never reciprocated. They intimidated Israel into setting free hundreds of terrorists in worthless “gestures.” They emboldened Palestinian Arab extremism by covering up the Palestinian Authority’s constant violations of the Oslo Accords. And they helped turn world public opinion against Israel by constantly blaming it as the main obstacle to peace.
And after all that, now they have the gall to show up on op-ed pages and talk shows, posing as neutral experts, trotting out new proposals that are supposed to magically succeed where every previous proposal of theirs has failed.
Ex-diplomats never have to deal with the consequences of their bad advice. After their diplomatic efforts flop, they return to comfortable jobs and the warmth of friendly television shows. They continue to enjoy the feeling of importance that comes from being quoted in the news, and they are deluged with prestigious speaking invitations. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, innocent Israeli women and children have to face the snipers, stabbers, kidnappers, and bombers whom those diplomats helped set free.
Isn’t it time to learn some lessons from history? Isn’t it time to learn from the mistakes of the past? Rescuing terrorist leaders always leads to more terrorism and atrocities.
That’s what happened with Arafat in 1978, when Jimmy Carter and his administration stopped Israel from completing Operation Litani against the PLO in southern Lebanon.
That’s what happened again with Arafat in 1982, when Ronald Reagan and his administration stopped the IDF from destroying the PLO when it was cornered in Beirut.
That’s what will happen if the Netanyahu government listens to the Trump team this time.
Moshe Phillips is the national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI: www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.
