Releasing the first batch of hostages, including 14 Israelis, 10 from Thailand and one from the Philippines, Hamas showed the complete farse of the exchange, continuing the agony of families wating for over 200 more captives. Hamas, who runs Gaza from underground tunnels, negotiated the release with Qatari mediators, giving Hamas more credibility than they deserve. Like Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Qatar helped legitimize Hamas outlaws, letting the terror group release remaining hostages in dribs-and-drabs depending on other unknown conditions. No one other that Israel, the U.S. and Qatar knows how much cash was paid to Hamas to meet all their conditions for release. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would resume the war after a brief pause for the hosage exchange. Why is Hamas who’s holed up in Gaza’s underground tunnels, calling the shots?
Like all hostage negotiations, the criminal holds the cards until subdued by the authorities. Negotiating with terrorists is risky business for the U.S. and Israel, sending the exact wrong message to Hamas that they have no options other than to leave Gaza, head into exile, while the U.S., Israel and the U.S. assemble a caretaker governmet to run the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre, has been handling the negotiations, through exiled former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. No one can explain why Hamas is not releasing all 240 hostages, mostly Israeli, but of varying nationalities? Netanyahu knows that the job in Gaza is not complete until all hostages are released and Hamas has been driven out of Gaza. Not one Arab or U.N. official has called for Hamas to leave Gaza permanently, letting Qatari officials handle the mediation.
Hamas hopes to get supplies to keep running the war-torn Gaza Strip from its underground tunnels, something that does nothing for Gaza citizens. U.S. and Israeli officials know that without a change in sovereinty over Gaza, the same mess will hapeen again, just like it has over the last 17 years of Hamas rule. Hamas has a one charter, one focus and one obsession of destroying Israel and killing all Jews. Hamas only accepts Islamic rule of the Holy Land, vowing to not stop its “resistance” to rid the regiion of all Jews. When Palestinians lived under Ottoma and British rule for over 500 years, there was no rebellions, like what happened with Jews received sovereignty from the British in 1948. Since then there have been unending uprisings and wars against Israeli, despite U.N. recognition of Israel as the sovereign state in the Holy Land in 1949.
President Joe Biden, 81, is too busy placating his progressive base to call for an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. Arab governments, too, won’t call for end to Hamas rule for one reason alone: Because they’ve made Palesitinian life intolerable since seizing Gaza from the Ramallah-based Palestiniian Authority [PA] in 2007. Biden thinks the PA can resume sovereignty of Gaza, when Hamas would have have PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, 87, asaassinated for complying with the U.S. and Israel. Abbas lives with Hamas threats on his life for compromising with Israel. Biden needs to state for the record that the U.S. rejects a return of Hamas rule in Gaza. Only then can the international community call for new leadership in Gaza, knowing the undeniable Hamas corruption. It’s no accident ath exiled Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshaal are billionaires living in Qatar.
Showing that Hamas is still in control of Gaza, they refuse to release all the hostages to end the ugly chapter when they slaughtered 1,200 Isralies and others, at least 260 young people massacred at the Nova Music festival in the Negev Desert near the Gaza Border. Questions about the lapse in Israel security having adequate Israeli Defense Forces president near the border and the intel warnings of an imminent attack must be sorted out. Reports recently about Israeli intel officials warning about an imminent Hamas attack were not heeded. Better intel and IDF presence near the Gaza border would have prevented the massacre. But Oct. 7 now rallies the country to end Hamas rule in Gaza. Biden could help his reelection by calling for an end to Hamas rule in Gaza before any talk of a ceasefire. Biden’s progressive base calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.
If the international commuinity wants a permanent truce and ceasfire, it needs to step up with calls for Hamas to leave Gaza. Nentanyahu paused the war with Hamas only as part of a hostage release deal that involves, per the Oatari negotiation, a three-for-ond release deal, calling for Israel to release three Palestinians in Israeli jails for each Israeli released by Hamas. Whatever the deal, it doesn’t deal answer the inescapable requirment to have Hamas no longer in charge of Gaza. White House officials need to work with the U.N. for find an acceptable alternative government in Gaza. Whatever’s left of Hamas in Gaza’s military tunnels, Israel must see Yahya Sinwar and his chief lieutenants that perpetrated the Oct. 7 atrocities to leave Gaza for good. If Sinwar continues to hold out in the tunnels, Biden must make clear that the Gaza War will not end until he’s gone.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in naitonal and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
