The details of the deal to return the Israeli abductees were yet to be published, but it seems that this deal will serve Hamas interests as well as American interests, but will be far away from the interests of the Israel. And moreover, places Israel in danger that can also be ranked as an existential danger.
Since the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the US has tried to prevent Israel from coming out stronger by suspending the airlift. The US Secretary of Defense Henry Kissinger has been quoted later, telling the Soviet ambassador that his nightmare is that Israel will win the war. And even now, it seems that the US is interested in maintaining the Hamas threat in the south of the Israel by preventing Israel in any way from achieving an unequivocal victory in war. Whether it is by stopping arms and ammunition shipments, imposing restrictions on the use of American weapons or assisting Hamas by sending supplies under the cover of “humanitarian aid” to Gaza residents when it is clear to everyone that the aid goes directly to Hamas and now by pushing for a deal to return the hostages back home.
And that’s how the U.S. gets what it wants. Israel is weak and much easier to manipulate for making decisions that fulfill the best interests of the US but are actually against Israel’s interests.
Hamas’ response to the latest US draft of the hostage release agreement is a diplomatic answer that may say “Yes” but means a big and clear “No.”
In standard Arabic, there is no word meaning “compromise”. And Hamas does not intend to invent such a word now. Therefore, it will not be pleased until all of its desires will be achieved and all its conditions will be fulfiled. And in a situation where all the pressure is directed specifically at Israel and not at Hamas (except for vague demands through Qatar), there is no reason for Hamas to accept any other agreement.
Hamas, which in the early days of the war felt it was in existential danger, now sees no interest in ending the fighting. While it receives direct aid from the US, broad international support when the IDF operates against it with impossible limitations – this is the ideal situation for Hamas. Even the residents of the Gaza Strip, who see Hamas in fact defeating the State of Israel and exacting a high price from it, are beginning to voice opinions that differ from the cries of suffering we heard at the beginning of the war. Today, the price for victory over Israel seems logical and acceptable to them. Although the journalists’ cameras will continue to show suffering and sadness, on social networks you can hear completely different things.
In spite that in first glance it seems that all the abductees, living and dead, will return to Israel, in practice it is highly doubtful that this will happen. But in a move that will result in the release of hundreds of prisoners from Israeli jails, including senior terrorists with blood on their hands, Hamas, which has lost thousands of fighters in recent months, will receive a significant reinforcement of people to fill the ranks. Given such conditions, Sinwar’s interest will be to thwart the execution of any deal that ends up being accepted at any moment he will fill he has exhausted everything he wants, and to leave some Israeli abductees and bodies with him to use in the future.
Today it is clear to everyone that Hamas will remain in the Gaza Strip as a controlling terrorist body, reinforced with released prisoners and inject new energy into the battered basin, thus continuing to threaten the State of Israel and especially the residents of the south. Hamas, which carried out a horrific attack on the State of Israel, the worst since the Holocaust, instead of being wiped off the face of the earth, receives prize after prize. This is in order to serve as a tool in the hands of the Americans to limit Israel’s power. As a senior Hamas official has already said, Ghazi Hamdi in an interview with Lebanon’s LBC channel at the beginning of the fighting, referring to the 7.10 offensive, “will also be a second, third, and fourth time.” With such achievements, there is no doubt that this is what Hamas will do.
Only powerful and uncompromising fighting throughout the Gaza Strip and continuous pressure on Hamas will lead to the release of all the abductees, living and dead, in a move that will lead to the destruction of Hamas or at least the expulsion of its leadership outside the borders of the country. Any other option would endanger the State of Israel and its residents, and no less so the free world in which today there are non-state terrorist organizations and other totalitarian states that understand the price paid by those who invade another country in order to massacre its residents.
The article was originally published on ynetnews
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement
