Former head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency and former Saudi ambassador to the US Turki al-Faisal condemned both Hamas and Israel in a speech on Tuesday, saying Hamas committed acts forbidden by Islam and Israel was 'indiscriminately' bombing civilians in Gaza.
"There are no heroes in this conflict, only victims," said Faisal in a speech at a conference hosted by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
"All militarily occupied people have a right to resist their occupation, even militarily," said Faisal, stressing however "I do not support the military option in Palestine. I prefer the other option: civil insurrection and disobedience. It brought down the British Empire in India and the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe."
"Israel has overwhelming military superiority and we see in front of our eyes the devastation and oblivion it is bringing to the people of Gaza."
The former Saudi official condemned Hamas's assault on southern Israel, saying "I categorically condemn Hamas's targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender as it is accused of. Such targeting belies Hamas's claims to an Islamic identity. There is an Islamic injunction against the killing of innocent children, women, and elders. The injunction is also against the desecration of places of worship."
Faisal continued to condemn both Hamas and the Israeli government, saying "I also condemn Hamas's gifting the higher moral ground to an Israeli government that is universally shunned, even by half of the Israeli public, as fascist, miscreant, and abhorrent. I condemn Hamas for giving this awful government the excuse to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its citizens and bombing them to oblivion."
The former Saudi ambassador additionally referenced efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seemingly as part of efforts to reach a normalization deal with Israel. "I condemn Hamas for further undermining the Palestinian Authority as Israel has been doing. I condemn Hamas for sabotaging the attempt of Saudi Arabia to reach a peaceful resolution to the plight of the Palestinian people, but equally I condemn Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian innocent civilians in Gaza and the attempt to forcibly drive them into [the] Sinai. I condemn Israeli targeted killing and the indiscriminate arrest of Palestinian children, women, and men in the West Bank. Two wrongs don't make a right."
Former Saudi official says Israel's actions concerning Palestinians 'provoked' Hamas attack
"I've been hearing a repeated phrase in American media: unprovoked attack. What more provocation is required to make it provoked than what Israel has done to the Palestinian people for three-quarters of a century."
Faisal listed off a number of complaints against Israel, including Jewish visits to the Temple Mount and settlements in the West Bank. The former Saudi ambassador additionally accused Israel of holding Palestinians "in concentration camps without recourse to due process."
Faisal referred to Qatar's role in the conflict between Israel and Hamas as well, saying "I condemn Israel for funneling Qatari money to Hamas, the terrorist group as defined by Israel."
Faisal stressed that the Arab Peace Initiative is "the only viable alternative to this bloodbath. Israel should seize it with all that it can muster of political, economic, and military might. Similar to America's Vietnam debacle, Israel just suffered its own 'Tet Offensive.'
The former ambassador compared the current war to the Vietnam War, saying that the US's losses in its involvement in the Vietnam War led to then president Lyndon B. Johnson not running for reelection. "Whether [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will resign, we'll have to wait and see."
During the speech, Faisal also stated that the Yom Kippur War was "not an Arab attack on Israel, but an Arab counterattack to Israel's aggression in 1967." The former claimed that countless efforts were made to get Israel to withdraw to the 1948 borders before the war in 1973, including promising oil supplies to the US.
Faisal: I've never seen Netanyahu as a man of peace
In an interview with journalist Hadley Gamble, when asked if he believed peace could ever be achieved while Netanyahu is in office, Faisal responded "I have never seen him as a man of peace, so I don't know."
"He's had the most major defeat of his career as a result of Hamas's actions across the border with Gaza. Will he survive that, will the Israeli people allow him to survive that as prime minister and not bring him to task and question him and get rid of him because of this awful failure that resulted from his policy?"
Faisal added that Qatar's support of Hamas is "troubling."
"Hamas's activities against the Palestinian people [are] well documented, how they treated the Palestinian Authority when they took over in Gaza in 2006. As I said, I'm no friend of Hamas. Anyone who provides support to them should be taken to task.