US Secretary of State Rubio Calls Hamas ‘Pure Evil’ that ‘Must Be Eliminated’

February 18, 2025

by: Joshua Spurlock ~ Mideast Update

Monday, 17 February 2025 | United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has a simple but profound view that drives his approach to the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza. “Hamas is evil. It’s pure evil. These are monsters. These are savages. That’s a group that needs to be eradicated,” Rubio told Scott Jennings on SiriusXM Patriot 125 last week. “And let me tell you, if they still are the dominant power in Gaza when all this is done, there is not going to be peace in the Middle East.”

So on Sunday as Rubio made his first trip to Israel as America’s newest Secretary of State, that viewpoint was a repeated refrain in his comments with Israel’s leaders.

“The President [Donald Trump] has been very clear: Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force,” said Rubio in comments with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated.”

Netanyahu, in his comments with Rubio, held the consistent theme. “We will eliminate Hamas’s military capability and its political rule in Gaza, we will bring all our hostages home and we will ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel,” said Netanyahu. “The unequivocal support of the United States on Gaza will help us achieve these objectives faster and set us on a path for a different future.”

In the near term, that unambiguous view of Hamas leads to a firm position on the release of the hostages, including President Trump’s threat to unleash hell on the terrorist group if Hamas fails to release the hostages. A view Israel also shares.

“I want to assure everyone who is now listening to us, President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us,” said Netanyahu. “We have a common strategy and we can’t always share in details this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them.”

In the long term, the understanding that Hamas is an evil organization also leads to a radically new way to imagine Gaza after the current war. President Trump has proposed that Gazans be enabled to leave Gaza to take refuge in other countries and a multinational group will clean out and rebuild Gaza afterwards. Whether the Gazans would return remains unclear. It’s a plan that is controversial—but it’s also a plan that hasn’t failed yet.

After nearly two decades of Hamas rule where the terrorist group repeatedly assaults Israel, leading to a Gaza conflict, leading to a reconstruction manipulated by Hamas, leading to further Hamas entrenchment, leading to another Hamas assault, culminating in October 7, Rubio believes things must be different this time.

“The President has also been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be—not the same tired ideas of the past but something that’s bold and something that frankly took courage and vision in order to outline,” said Rubio in his comments with Netanyahu. “And it may have shocked and surprised many, but what cannot continue is the same cycle where we will repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place.”

Or as Rubio told the audience of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show last week, “The only plan is the Trump plan. So if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it. So we’re looking forward to that.”

To that end, Rubio will be visiting other nations in the Middle East in addition to Israel to hear their plans. If the region can finally be rid of Hamas, then that plan can offer more than just hope—it can offer transformation.

Netanyahu certainly believes it’s possible. According to an Israeli press release, Netanyahu told an Israeli government meeting after his discussion with Rubio that Israel and the Trump administration are “committed together to common objectives” that include “freeing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and—of course—ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel, in addition to the President’s plan, which says that there will be a completely different Gaza.”

Said Netanyahu, “This is very important. It creates great hope for us, for a different kind of future, a status that the State of Israel has never had since its founding. There have been neither opportunities such as this, or partners such as this or the potential to be rid of our enemies and bring about opportunities that we simply could not dream of.”

Posted on February 18, 2025

Source: (This article was originally published by the Mideast Update on February 16, 2025. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today.)

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr.com

Photo License: Flickr