Joe Biden: Hamas attacked Israel to sabotage improving ties with Saudi Arabia and undermine peace

President Joe Biden said on Friday that he thought the horrific assault by Hamas on Israel two weeks ago was intended to sour the nation’s improving relations with Saudi Arabia.

At a campaign event, Biden addressed the audience, “One of the reasons they acted like they did… why Hamas moved on Israel… (was) because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis.”

He said that “the Saudis wanted to unite the Middle East…recognize Israel.”

The October 7 assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel destroyed the momentum toward a historic pact that the US engineered to improve ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, custodian of the two holiest sites in Islam.

At least 1,400 people were killed when the Islamist organization broke into Israel from the Gaza Strip, primarily civilians who were shot, maimed, or burned to death on the first day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities. The Islamist group also took more than 200 prisoners.

Since then, Israel has pledged to exterminate Hamas, and it claims that 1,500 of the group’s militants were killed in combat before its forces retook the first attacked territory.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, a bombing campaign started in retaliation has destroyed whole city blocks in Gaza, killing 4,137 Palestinians, predominantly civilians.

During US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Riyadh on October 14, Saudi authorities said that negotiations with Israel on normalizing relations had been put on hold.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, talked of progress with Israel but also urged on progress for the Palestinian cause.

The United States-mediated 2020 Abraham Accords, which compelled neighbors Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Morocco, to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, were not joined by the Gulf monarchy, which has never recognized Israel.

The Biden administration had pushed Saudi Arabia to do the same, and Riyadh had asked for security assurances from Washington in return, as well as help with a civil nuclear program.

In an interview with Fox News last month, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince stressed the significance of the Palestinian issue for his nation while claiming that he was “getting closer every day” to a normalization deal with Israel.

The Palestinian organization Hamas, which is in charge in the Gaza Strip, is opposed to agreements on normalization with Israel.