ABU DHABI — Former top Biden administration official Brett McGurk said Tuesday that the lesson of the October 7 attack and the subsequent Gaza conflict is, “Don’t start a war with Israel.”
Speaking to The Times of Israel on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi, the former Mideast coordinator of the White House National Security Council made the assertion in response to a question about the historical lesson that can be drawn from Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and the Gaza conflict that has ensued.
“It won’t work out well for you. That’s the lesson,” McGurk asserted.
“Ask Sinwar, Nasrallah or Khamenei how they’re doing today compared to October 6,” he added, referring to the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah who were killed by Israel last year, along with the supreme leader of Iran, which has sustained significant blows over the past year and a half.
McGurk was one of the architects of the ceasefire and hostage release deal that was inked in January between Israel and Hamas. The agreement fell apart after two months, but US President Donald Trump — who helped finalize the accord before entering office — is working to revive it.
While only speaking briefly, the senior Biden aide’s answer indicated his rejection of efforts to scrutinize Israel’s offensive in Gaza more than the attack that provoked it.
US President Joe Biden’s administration did at times break with Israel over the latter’s prosecution of the war in Gaza, speaking out over repeated dips in the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Strip and peaks in the number of civilian casualties.
However, Biden also dispatched aircraft carriers to the Middle East in order to deter Iran and its proxies; sent billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel; helped thwart a pair of Iranian missile attacks; blocked a host of anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations; and refused to single out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the main obstacle in the hostage talks, insisting that Hamas was the main source of blame amid months of stagnation.
McGurk was arguably the most important figure in shaping Biden’s policy in the war, which withstood pressure from US progressives who wanted to take a harder line against Israel.
He was also one of the main hostage negotiators on behalf of the US and joined forces with Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff after last November’s US presidential election in order to bring the deal over the finish line.
After holding senior national security roles in successive administrations since former president George W. Bush — including a brief stint during Trump’s first term — McGurk left government in January, taking positions at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Lux venture capital firm.