LOS ANGELES.–Killing three sons of 62-year-old leader in exile Ismail Haniyeh, the Oatar-based chief negotiator is in no mood to compromise with Israel. Hanieyeh had 13 children before his three sons and two grandchildren were killed in a car bombed by Israel in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp. Haniyeh, former leader 67-year-old Khaled Meshaal and 73-year-old Abu Marzouk, are all billionaires, having looted Gaza since 2007. Current Gaza Leader 53-year-old Yahya Sinwar and 48-year-old chief military Mohammed Deif are all likely transferring what’s left of Gaza cash before the seek exile in some safe haven like Qatar. “Our demands are clear and specific and we will not make concessions on them. The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, as the climax of negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position,” Haniyeh told Al Jazeera TV.
Hamas announced today that it couldn’t meet Israel’s ceasefire demand to returning 40 hostages, saying there weren’t 40 hostages left in their control. So whatever happened to the remaining 100 hostages, they’re either dead or Hamas doesn’t have control of them from other Palestinian terror groups. Haniyeh acts like he’s calling the shots for the remaining ceasefire negotiations despite looting Gaza for years, now worth an estimated $4 billion. “The blood of my sons is not dearer than the blood of our people,” Haniyeh said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that Hamas cannot be trusted for anything, has only one thing in its charter, to destroy Israel. All the fictional talk of Israeli genocide in Gaza serves Hamas aims but was rejected by 70-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Austin rejects South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in The Hague.
Whatever the death toll listed in the six month war by Hamas, it’s grossly exaggerated at 33,000, suggesting that Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] has sought to systematically exterminate Gaza civilians. Hamas never verifies its casualty counts, only says that two-thirds of the dead are women and children. Whatever military mistakes have been made by Israel in Gaza, including the accidental April 3 bombing of World Central Kitchen, killing seven, the IDF, unlike Hamas or other terror groups, does not engage in genocide. Israel knows all about genocide with many of its founders in 1948 escapees from the Nazi Holocaust, where the German Nazi regime exterminated some 6 million European Jews. When countries like South Africa claim the Israeli-Hamas War involves genocide, it certainly hasn’t been on the Israeli side. Yet that’s the PR message sent by Israel’s detractors.
Netyahahu said he’s set the date for the Rafah invasion where the IDF plans to clear out remaining pockets of Hamas resistance. Netanyahu refuses to bend to global pressure from the White House and elsewhere for a permanent ceasefire, essentially leaving Hamas in power. Haniyeh thinks that if he can hold out long enough, Hamas can still survive the Israeli onslaught. What does the seven months of war tell anyone about Hamas military capabilities? It tells the world it’s a feckless, but dangerous, terror organization, capable of occasional blindside strikes, like Oct. 7, but not capable of toppling the Israeli government. Hamas has always said it could annihilate Israel at anytime, boasting on Oct. 7, that it could have gone all the war to Jerusalem to take over the Holy City. Haniyeh is the last one who should speak for Hamas since he lives as a billionaire in Qatar.
Haniyeh represents the truth about Hamas corruption, looting the some $100 billion in oil-rich Gulf State donor cash Gaza received over the last 17 years of Hamas rule. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority [PA], led by 87-year-old feeble Mahmoud Abbas who inherited the job Nov. 11, 2004 after Hamas poisoned PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Hamas was formed in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin for the purpose of supplying Arafat with the firepower to pressure Israel into concessions. Twenty-years after the 1967 Six Day War, Hamas was supposed to conquer back Muslim lands from the Jews who declared independence in 1948. Bedouin Arabs living in the Holy Land under 500 years or Ottoman and British control, never revolted. Only after the formation of the Israel did Arabs revolt against Jewish sovereignty.
Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders currently hiding out in Gaza’s vast underground tunnels won’t surrender until Israel drives them out. Haniyeh made his fortune stealing from ordinary Palestinians, yet dares to say Hamas represents the Palestinian people. Haniyeh continues to pretend he calls the shots in Gaza, knowing that the IDF has Hamas on the ropes, only weeks away from surrendering, like the rest of the Gaza Strip. “Thanks to God who honored us by the martyrdom of my brothers Hasem, Amir and Mohammed and their children,” wrote Abdel-Salam Haniyeh, Haniyeh’s eldest son. Hamas and other Palestinians could have had a future had they continued to work on the peace deal started by Arafat. But Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders found out they could all get rich on the backs of ordinary Palestinians, leaving the prospects for peace impossible with Hamas.
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.
