HOW HAMAS GOT THE CEMENT The Israeli army last week dismantled a mile-long Hamas tunnel that it found underneath the area where Israeli forces currently are deployed in Gaza. The Washington Post has estimated that Hamas built more than 1,300 terror tunnels in Gaza in the years preceding October 7, 2023. So how did Hamas acquire the cement for all that construction, despite Israel’s blockade of such materials? The terrorists had help from then-US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross—according to Ross himself. In an op-ed in the Post on August 8, 2014, Ross admitted that, as an envoy for the Obama administration, he pressured Israel to allow Hamas to import cement. Ross made that demand even though the Israelis warned him that Hamas was using cement for military purposes. “At times,” he wrote in the Post, “I argued with Israeli leaders and security officials, telling them they needed to allow more construction materials, including cement, into Gaza so that housing, schools and basic infrastructure could be built. They countered that Hamas would misuse it, and they were right.” Against their better judgment, the Israelis gave in to Ross’s pressure. And they paid a steep price. The tunnels were what made October 7 possible. That’s where the terrorists trained, out of sight of Israeli surveillance. That’s where they stored their weapons. And that’s where they enslaved, tortured, and raped Israeli hostages. The same Dennis Ross recently wrote an op-ed in the Israeli press, in which he sought to influence how Israelis vote in their upcoming election. Will Israeli voters now take advice from someone who has admitted that he helped enable Hamas to build the terror tunnels? -Dennis A. Ross