Former President Barack Obama shared his thoughts on the war between Israel and Hamas on Saturday, saying that he thought both sides had dirt on their hands.
Obama shared his thoughts on the conflict while speaking on the podcast Pod Save America.
“[I]f you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth,” Obama said in a clip posted to X Saturday. “And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree. I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward?’ as hard as I tried. I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
Obama went on to condemn Hamas and its attack on Oct. 7 but also expressed his sympathy for innocent civilians in Gaza.
“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable,” he added.
On Friday, the former president spoke at the Obama Foundation’s “Democracy Forum,” sharing more thoughts on the Middle East and what’s happening, calling it a “moral reckoning for all of us.”
“[A]ll of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the former president said Friday. “One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
He went on to say, “it is impossible to be dispassionate in the face of this carnage.”
“It is hard to feel hopeful. The images of families mourning, of bodies being pulled from rubble, force a moral reckoning on all of us,” Obama said.
So far, thousands have been killed and more injured in the war between Israel and Hamas, with Israel reporting that more than 1,400 people have been killed and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reporting that more than 9,200 Palestinians are dead.