LOS ANGELES.–European Union’s 75-year-old Foreign Policy Chief, Spanish diplomat, Josep Borrell urged Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement nearly one years after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre that killed over 1,200 Israelis and others, taking another 251 hostage in the worst atrocity since the Nazi Holocaust. “The only thing I can say is that all actors involved have to continue putting pressure on both parties to reach this agreement,” Borrell said in Dubai, visiting the United Arab Emirates. Borrell knows that Israel deals with a violent Iranian-backed terror organization in prosecuting its war against Hamas. Hamas leader 62-year-old Yahya Sinwar said yesterday that Hamas is in it for the long haul and has no worries about out-surviving Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar stays deeply buried in Hamas’s elaborate military tunnel labyrinth beneath the Gaza Strip.
Borrell knows that whatever the suffering of the Gaza people, Sinwar is only, at this point, concerned about his own survival. If Borrell wanted to make a difference, he, and other colleagues at the EU, would have called for Hamas to leave the Gaza Strip. Borrell admits that there can be no future in Gaza with Hamas staying in power. Yet Sinwar, and Hamas leadership in exile, continue to hold on to power at all costs, regardless of the collateral damage on the surface of Gaza where ordinary Gaza citizens suffer without any hope for the future. “But it’s coming late. Every day that the agreement is not being reached, it means more hostages will be retained and more people will be killed,” Borrell said, stating the obvious but realizing that Hamas cannot be dealt with like a normal political body. Hamas is an Iranian-funded terror organization committed to destroying Israel.
President Joe Biden, 81, sent 62-year-old Antony Blinken for the 10th time, this time not meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but to go to Cairo to discuss the situation with Egypt and Oatar, two main peace mediators. Sinwar wants guarantees from Israel that it would leave Hamas in power in Gaza, something Netanyahu says would defeat the whole purpose to the nearly year-long war. “So it’s not a matter of waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow is already too late,” Borrell said, emphasizing the long-overdue nature to any ceasefire talks. Yet the real obstacle to a ceasefire and hostage release is Sinwar who clings to power deep under Gaza’s dilapidated infrastructure. Blinken’s trip to Cairo is another symbolic gesture designed to pressure Netanyahu into making more concessions to Hamas, something that makes no sense for Gaza’s future as a Palestinian state.
Hamas seized Gaza from the Ramallah [West Bank] Palestine Authority by force June 14, 2007 and has run the territory every since. Hamas has looted Gaza’s coffers, enriching past Hamas leaders and robbing citizens of electricity and clean water. Not one legitimate Arab state believes that Hamas can continue to run Gaza. Yet not one Arab state has asked Hamas to leave the Gaza Strip, including Borrell at the EU. “If there is not a political project, the war is just a repetition one after another, always the same story,” Borrell said, knowing that Hamas cannot give up its charter of destroying Israel. Borrell commended the UAE for doing a lot to push hard for a ceasefire deal, despite difficulties with both sides. ‘The Emirates are doing a lot from a diplomatic point of view and humanitarian point of view,” Borrell said, knowing that they can’t pull a rabbit out of their hat.
Israel continues to rack up battlefield success today announcing it had liquidated Ahmed Aish Salame al-Hashash, the chief Rafah-based Islamic Jihad rocket and missile division. Islamic Jihad is another Hamas-funded group that joins forces in its ongoing war with Israel. Netanyahu has refused to end Israel’s occupation of the Philadelphi corridor in Rafah where much of the rockets and bomb-making material comes from the terrorist-infested Sinai Peninsula. Israel returned Sharm El-Sheikh Sinai Peninsula where it’s now infested with various Islamic terror groups. If Borrell really wants a ceasefire deal in Gaza, he should lobby foreign powers to see Hamas leave the Gaza Strip for good. Sinwar has done nothing to help end the stalemate only stubbornly insisting he’s in it for the long-term staying in power, regardless of the civilian casualties.
Hamas’s Gaza-based Ministry of Health claims that 41,252 have been killed since the Oct. 7, 2023 war began. No one has any way to verify Hamas stats, knowing they’d do anything to hang onto power. Israeli officials dispute in the strongest possible terms Hamas figure as gross exaggerations largely done to gaslight the international community. Israel does claim it’s killed over 17,000 Hamas terrorists but, again, none of the figures by Hamas and Israel can be verified. Borrell should work closely with the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to get Hamas to leave Gaza so the U.N. can set up a new government authority that doesn’t involve Hamas terrorists. Gaza learned out the hard way what happens when a terrorist group plunders its wealth and leaves the seaside Mediterranean territory destroyed and destitute. Time for world leaders to all call for Hamas to get out of Gaza.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’d editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
