LOS ANGELES.–Hamas, the terror group that runs the Gaza Strip, says it agrees with some aspects of 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan, essentially leaving Hamas in place to run Gaza. Biden, of course, wants Hamas out of Gaza, only expresses concerns about civilian casualties. Hamas hoped it could disseminate fake statistics about Gaza’s civilian casualties to put pressure on Israel to stop its offensive now in its eighth month. Beyond anything else, Hamas wants to survive and continue to rule the Gaza Strip. In its 18-year rule, Hamas leaders have stolen billions in donor cash to enrich themselves, only to live in luxury while ordinary citizens have no food, water or electricity. “Hamas confirms its readiness to deal positively and in a constructive matter with any proposals based on the permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israel force from the Gaza Strip . . .” Hamas said.
Hamas faces Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] closing in on its last bastion in Rafah, where Hamas continues to spew for world consumption fake stats about Gaza casualties. Not one terrorist group or country has come to Hamas’s rescue in Gaza as they battle Israel. Even its chief terrorist backer, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told billionaire Hamas leader-in-exile Ismail Haniyeh back in Oct. 2023, Iran would not intervene to save the pro-Palestine terror group. Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987 to serve as a military wing of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO]. Arafat went to his grave Nov. 11, 2004 never realizing his dream of Palestinian statehood. Hamas now wants recognition as an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 74, doesn’t buy Hamas’s sudden change of heart.
Hamas completed the worst atrocity on Israel Oct. 7, 2023 since the Nazi Holocaust. Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar ordered the rape, torture and slaughter of innocent Jewish civilians, killing 1,200 Oct. 7, 2023, taking another 250 hostage. Hamas is chartered with only one purpose: The destruction of Israel. Netanyahu knows that he can’t live with a terror group side-by-side with Israel. Yet not one European Country has called for the exile of Hamas officials from Gaza, buying the claptrap that Hamas can live to see another day. Netanyahu, regardless of political repercussions, refuses to accept Hamas leadership in Gaza. Hamas wants the international community to commit to rebuilding the Gaza Strip with Hamas in power, something Netanyahu refuses to do. Hamas thinks it can blackmail Israel into swapping prisoners and staying in power.
Hamas has not agreed to recognize Israel, only that it would accept certain conditions specified by Biden for a Gaza ceasefire. Hamas wants a ceasefire because it knows that it doesn’t have much more time before the IDF neutralizes it, now holed up in Gaza’s military tunnel system. Biden plays a dangerous PR game, giving Hamas the idea that it backs a ceasefire to placate U.N. concerns but actually seeks to remove Hamas from Gaza. Netanyahu knows that without Hamas out of Gaza, the same kind of atrocity could be committed against Israel. “Hamas sees Biden’s position now more focused on pressuring Israel to return to negotiations with a different attitude, or they [Israel] could risk clashing with the Americans,” an artificial but inaccurate view of Biden. Biden wants Hamas out of Gaza, despite not calling directly for Hamas to accept exile in another Arab state.
Biden’s well publicized beef with Netanyahu is largely smoke, with Biden trying to placate pro-Palestine groups during an Election Year in the United States. Biden, like anyone else with knowledge of Gaza, knows that Hamas must get out. After fleecing Gaza for cash for 18 years, Biden doesn’t think Hamas has the moral authority to run the Gaza Strip. Hamas thinks, using Israel’s negative publicity, it can pressure Biden into doing the bidding of a State Department banned terror organization. Netanyahu knows he sees the end of Hamas within his sights, knowing that ordinary Palestinians have no future with Hamas in power. Whether or not Hamas sees Biden accurately, Biden wants no part of the terror group that committed the worst atrocity Oct. 7, 2023 since the Nazi Holocaust. Palestinians know that Hamas cannot return to power in Gaza.
Spending eight months battling an al-Qaeda or ISIS-like terror group, Biden isn’t about to get duped by the unsavory characters running Hamas. While Biden would like to see less heat by his party’s left flank, he also wants to back the U.S. No. 1 ally in the Middle East. Netanyahu had a big task to fulfill taking on Hamas with its years of stockpiling weapons and terrorists. Israel found a whole new tunnel system in Rafah allowing Hamas to smuggle arms from Egypt into the Mediterranean enclave. Whatever the death toll Hamas reports in Gaza, there’s no verification to Hamas claims. Israeli Defense Forces deny Hamas casualty figures knowing Hamas cannot back up its claims. Biden was the first say last October that Hamas’s death toll could not be confirmed. Biden doesn’t want Hamas to stay in Gaza, he wants the terror group out so Palestinians have a future.
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.
