Former President Barack Obama criticized Israel’s security policy as having “ceded moral ground” and said that Israel’s founding had unjustly taken land from Palestinians in remarks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this week.

At the same time, the former president also emphasized that both Israelis and Palestinians have a responsibility to change their approach in order to move toward peace.

“The fact is that the Jewish people for millennia were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. Europe was responsible for much of that. They understandably sought a refuge in a place where they had historic ties. That is undeniable,” Obama said, according to transcripts and recordings of his remarks. “What is also undeniable is that they took the land of people and they were expelled. And those people, understandably, said, ‘This is an injustice, and I want my land back.’”

The comments overlook that much of the original Jewish settlement in the land of Israel in the 1800s and early 1900s was on land legally purchased by Jews.

He offered strong criticism of Israel’s security strategy, arguing that military strength alone will not offer it long-term security and that its approach had “ceded moral ground,” a message he said he had delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“At some point to break the cycle, the stronger party has a responsibility by virtue of its strength,” he said. “If the attitude of Israel is now that, ‘We are the strongest army, most technologically advanced in the region, then our security is dependent on us simply doing whatever we please and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone.’ That may work short term. It is a disaster for you long-term.”

He also criticized Israel for weakening potential partners for peace among Palestinians, which he claimed encouraged radicalism and destructive ideologies like those of Hamas. But he also condemned Hamas’ terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

“You could not have designed something that was less likely to produce meaningful change. In fact, it created the opposite,” Obama said of the attacks.

Ultimately, he continued, Israel and its citizenry need to “rethink, reimagine” how they are going to “live in this region — are you just going to be behind walls and wipe out everybody around here, or are you going to find some just way of defending yourself while still acting in an ethical, moral way?”

At the same time, he said that the Palestinian people will need to recognize that they will not defeat Israel through military means, “which means that we have to look to other examples of how changes come about, based on moral claims and ethical claims, and mobilizing and nonviolent strategies, and that’s going to take some time.”

The former president this week also recorded an ad offering his endorsement for anti-Israel Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. He will be campaigning for El-Sayed on Oct. 24 — one of the few announced campaign stops he’s making for Democratic Senate candidates this month.