'Hamas has to lose' conflict with Israel and must be weakened, says former deputy national security adviser

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The US should be allowing Israel to ‘punish’ Hamas: Elliott Abrams

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss the major foreign policy test facing the Biden administration.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams said Thursday that he hopes that the Biden administration understands that "Hamas has to lose" the ongoing conflict with Israel.

During an appearance on "America’s Newsroom," Abrams, who serves as a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), asserted that a win by Hamas would have negative repercussions on the U.S. and the Arab world.

"If Hamas wins this encounter then not only does Israel lose—we lose and all of the Arab countries that recently improved relations with Israel lose," Abrams told Dana Perino.

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Abrams went even further in his assertion by saying that the U.S. should be "allowing" Israel to "punish" Hamas so that they come out of the conflict "weaker" and show the Middle East that they made a mistake.  

He also added that Iran "absolutely" played a role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by supplying Hamas with the rockets currently being fired in an attempt to penetrate Israel’s iron dome. 

"10 years ago, 15 years ago it was impossible for Hamas to shoot this many rockets this far into Israel," said Abrams. 

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Abrams, who served as the Trump administration's special representative to Iran and was deputy national security adviser under President George W. Bush, claimed that Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military officer killed by a US airstrike under the Trump administration back in 2020, was in charge of moving the technology, smuggling the rockets into Gaza, and teaching Hamas forcers how to build them. 

More than three dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Biden to "unequivocally" support Israel's right to defend itself, and "immediately" end negotiations with Iran on sanctions relief, saying Tehran is "supporting" terrorist activity by Hamas against Israel.

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The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997. Republicans noted, though, that Iran is a "longtime financial and material supporter of Hamas."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.