LOS ANGELES.–Calling the shots from his luxury penthouse in Doha, Qatar, 62-year-old billionaire Ismail Hanineh [$4billion], 72-year-old Abu Marsuk [$3 billion] and 68-year-old Khaled Meshaal [$4 billion] think they can play hardball with Israel after six months of war since the Oct. 7, 2023 rape, torture and slaughter of 1,200 Israeli citizens. Haniyeh, who looted the Gaza people, receiving over $100 billion in donor cash from 2007, manages to speak for Hamas. Hamas was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to serve as Palestine Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat’s military wing to deal with Israel. But before his poisoning death by suspected Hamas militants Nov. 11, 2004, Arafat had begun to see the merits of renouncing violence and peace with Israel. Hamas continued its charter of destroying Israel no matter what peace deals Arafat signed with Israel.
Consuming the new after six months of war in Gaza is all about collateral damage the latest outrage the bombing death of seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza. Whatever the horrific condition in Gaza, caught in the crossfire of the Israeli-Hamas War, a warzone carries certain unavoidable risks including errant bombs. World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres believes Israel deliberately targeted his workers. Hamas uses collateral damage to prove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s a ruthless killer, someone Hamas likes to brand as a Nazi. Since the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Netanyahu wants Hamas to leave Gaza, no longer able to govern the Mediterranean seaside enclave without mass corruption and looting. Yet if you listen to Haniyeh, who lives in luxury in Doha, he expects Israel to conform to his demands for a permanent ceasefire agreement.
Haniyeh, Marzuk and Meshaal are the kind of living disgrace of plundering Gaza since 2007, stealing billions from Gaza citizens. “We are committed to our demands, the permanent ceasefire, comprehensive and complete withdrawal of the enemy out of the Gaza Strip. The return of all displaced people to their homes, allowing all aid need for our people in Gaza, rebuilding the Strip, lifting the blockade and achieving an honorable prisoner exchange death,” Haniyed said. Hanieh thinks he can call the shots when most to Gaza has been destroyed all because he instructed current Gaza Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his military chief Mohammed Deif to rape, torture and slaughter Israeli citizens. Sinwar said after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, he could easily conquer Israel at any time, planning the latest cross-border attacks for well over a year.
Haniyeh wants a permanent ceasefire to stymie Netanyahu from driving Hamas leadership out of Gaza. Haniyeh knows what life in luxury can be like living in exile from the Gaza Strip. Whether Sinwar agrees to the same conditions for exile is anyone’s guess. Judging by his disappearance into Hamas elaborate underground military tunnels, it looks like he’s holding out for a political settlement. Haniyeh demands the Israel leave Gaza but only after armed Hamas militants are defeated and Siwar and Mohammed Deif agree to exile. Demanding that Gaza residents return to their ancestral homes in Israel, Haniyeh wants to re-litigate Israel’s 1948 war of independence. Haniyeh likes making outrageous demands because he knows it will never happen, only prolonging the current conflict as long as it takes to neutralize Hamas militants and drive leadership into exile.
Hamas declared war on Israel Oct. 7, 2023 slaughtering 1,200 Israelis, committing atrocious war crimes, not a stray bomb that happened to kill World Central Kitchen workers. No one in the press calls out Haniyeh, Marzuk and Meshaal for looting the Gaza Strip of billions before accepting exile in Doha. Making statements that he wants the blockade to end, expecting Israel to release all its Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails shows that Haniyeh hope enough bad publicity can save Hamas before Israel moves into Rafah, the southern-most tip of Gaza. Netahyahu told the press that Israel has completed most of its campaign against Hamas but still must finish the job in Rafah. Hamas hopes that world condemnation will save Hamas from evacuating the Gaza Strip. Judging by the disappearance of Sinwar and Deif, it looks like they’re holding out in Gaza’s underground tunnels.
No question that Israel faces condemnation in the U.N. and court of world opinion for its operation in Gaza. But as Netanyahu said, there can be no turning away to the mission of ridding Hamas from the Gaza Strip. If there’s any chance of a two-state solution, Hamas must be removed from Gaza and new West Bank leadership takes over Gaza. Palestinian Authority [PA] leader 87-year-old Mahmoud Abbas can no longer lead the West Bank and Gaza. U.N. officials must find new leadership capable to managing a future Palestinian state but not before Hamas leaves the Gaza Strip. How Palestinians let Haniyeh, Marzuk and Meshaal speak for Gaza when they’ve plundered the Gaza Strip is anyone’s guess. Hamas’s exiled leadership living in luxury in Dohan do not speak for Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. Only by getting rid of Hamas can peace get a chance in Gaza and the West Bank
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
