LOS ANGELES.–Hamas, a U.S. labeled terror group, refuses any ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip unless Israel agrees to allow it to stay in power. President Joe Biden, 81, offered a three-step ceasefire proposal in which Hamas must release Israel hostages in exchange for a staged ceasefire deal, with no guarantees that Israel would permanently leave the Gaza Strip. Hamas wants Israel to leave it in power, something unacceptable to Israel and the United States. So far, Hamas has refused any talk of an exile deal in which Oct. 7, 2023 slaughter mastermind, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and military commander Mohammed Deif wourld leave Gaza. “We cannot agree to an agreement that doesn’t secure, guarantee and ensure a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and completing a real serious swap deal accordingly,” said Osama Hamdan, Senior Hamas official.
Hamas wants, above all else, to stay in power to continue to plunder the Gaza Strip to enrich its leadership, with many Hamas officials billionaires living in luxury in Doha, Qatar. Hamas wants to pretend Sinwar’s Oct. 7, 2023 slaughter didn’t take place. Gaza citizens are beginning to wake up the fact that Hamas has ripped off the Gaza Strip for the last 18 years, leaving Gaza without enough food, water and electricity, while Hamas leaders built military tunnels and amassed wealth at the expense of ordinary citizens. Hamas no longer has the support of oil-rich Gulf States, a source of much of the cash funneled into the Gaza Strip for reconstruction. Because the Hamas charter calls only for the destruction of Israel, donors know with Hamas in power the same kind of massacres will continue to happen indefinitely without removing Hamas rule from Gaza.
Biden’s plan calls only for a six-week ceasefire to verify that Hamas meets its commitment to release all living hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Phase two of Biden’s plan would be a negotiated settlement of the conflict, something Hamas now fears would require the terror group to get out of Gaza. Hamas has shown no interest in recognizing Israel, continuing to call it an occupying power, with any terrorist act accepted against Israel as an act of “resistance.” Hamas was formed in 1987 by blind, wheelchair-bound Sheik Ahmed Yassin to serve as the military wing of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO]. Arafat, together with six Arab states, tried to annihilate Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, resulting in Israeli annexation of the Egypt’s Gaza Strip, Jordan’s West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights, all taken as buffer zones.
Arabs living in the Holy Land before Israel’s 1948 war of independence lived under Ottoman Turk and British rule for over 500 years. Only after the British gave the British Mandate of Palestine to Jews did Arabs living in the region start revolting, staging continuous uprisings and wars, all under the fake idea of occupation. Israel made a peace treaty with Egpyt in which it returned the resort-rich Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in exchange for peace, after Egypt’s bitter losses in the 1967 Six Day War. Hamas only emerged when Arafat realized that he would not defeat Israel militarily because of its superior technology and defense apparatus, forcing Arafat to negotiate a series to peace deals with Israel. In the end, Arafat went to his grave Nov. 11, 2004 never realizing his dream of a Palestinian State, leaving Hamas intact to continue the war of resistance.
Hamas wants to stay in power in Gaza at all costs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows Hamas’s game of seeking the ceasefire in order to preserve its control over the Gaza Strip. But after the last eight months of war, no one, other that the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran, thinks Hamas can stay in power, certainly not the Arab Gulf States that will be responsible to funding Gaza’s reconstruction. “Israel only wants one phase where it takes all its hostages, then it resumes its aggression and war on our people.” Hamdan said. Hamdan knows the war is not on the Gazan people, it’s on Hamas for committing Nazi-like atrocities on Israeli citizens. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was convinced Oct. 7, 2023 he was taking back the British Mandate of Palestine for the Palestinian people. Instead he destroyed the Gaza Strip forcing Sinwar to hide in military tunnels.
Hamas has not yet accepted that it’s not part of any post-war government in the Gaza Strip, refusing to accept reality that it’s out of power. Clinging to power by hiding out in Gaza’s military tunnels, Hamas has been reduced to a shell of its former self. Iran hoped with all the cash-and-arms, it would have put up a better fight against Israel, instead roundly defeated, only clinging to what’s left of its underground terrorist infrastructure. “We ask mediators to get a clear position from the Israel occupation to commit to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal,” Hamdan said, pretending that Hamas can continue to rule Gaza. All third party negotiators, including Egypt and Qatar, know that Hamas can no longer rule in Gaza. But it’s clear from Hamdan that Hamas leadership still thinks it can outlast Israeli Defense Forces that have all but destroyed 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.
