|
In-Depth Issues:
U.S.: It's Not Our Job to Tell the Israelis What They Should Do in Gaza - Gabrielle Weiniger ( Sunday Times-UK)
Israel plans to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Gaza City, one of the last remaining strongholds of Hamas, by Oct. 7, 2025.
"It will take three to five months to conquer and evacuate the people - the same way they've always done - and then to enter operationally with boots on the ground, and fight, in the streets, in the tunnels, in the corners against the last brigade of Hamas," explained IDF Col. Grisha Yakubovich.
"Hamas has booby-trapped everything there. It's going to be very dangerous, but this is what armies do."
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told CBS on Friday that the next moves in Gaza involved a "decision that the Israelis, and only the Israelis, can make."
"It's not our job to tell them what they should or should not do."
U.S. Ambassador Huckabee Slams UK PM Starmer over Gaza Stance ( Jerusalem Post)
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Friday statement condemning Israel's plan to expand operations in Gaza.
Huckabee said: "So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas & feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved? Did UK surrender to Nazis and drop food to them? Ever heard of Dresden, PM Starmer? That wasn't food you dropped. If you had been PM then, the UK would be speaking German!"
"How much food has Starmer and the UK sent to Gaza? @IsraeliPM has already sent 2 MILLION TONS into Gaza & none of it even getting to hostages."
"Maybe UK PM ought to sit this one out & follow Arab League who said Hamas should disarm & release ALL hostages immediately."
Federal Investigators Compile Evidence of Systematic Hamas Aid Theft - Adam Kredo ( Washington Free Beacon)
The USAID inspector general's office is compiling evidence that Hamas systematically steals UN aid in Gaza, undercutting a recently leaked USAID report that found no evidence of such theft.
U.S. officials said the investigations center on occasions in which Hamas "commandeered UN aid trucks," embedded terrorist operatives in "UN agencies or at UN facilities," and ensured humanitarian goods were "directly delivered to Hamas officials."
The inspector general's office has obtained evidence of those practices and is investigating "credible allegations of Hamas interference, diversion, and theft of humanitarian aid in Gaza," according to a memo transmitted to Congress.
1,300 Aid Trucks Entered Gaza Last Week ( JNS)
More than 1,300 trucks carrying aid supplies for civilians entered Gaza over the past week, the Israeli Defense Ministry's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said Sunday.
Meanwhile, almost 1,900 trucks that had been waiting at the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings were collected and their supplies distributed by the UN and other international organizations.
In addition, the IDF announced that more than 1,000 aid packages had been airdropped into Gaza since late last month by the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands.
Moreover, on Aug. 5, COGAT announced a pilot program to allow Gaza merchants to bring goods in "to increase the volume of aid entering Gaza, while reducing reliance on aid collection by the UN and international organizations."
As part of Israel's new plan to take control of Gaza City, the army is preparing to distribute additional humanitarian assistance to civilians outside combat zones, the Prime Minister's Office said.
Hamas Data Demonstrates There Is No Genocide in Gaza - Ariel Kahana ( Israel Hayom)
Data from the "Palestinian Health Ministry" demonstrates there is no genocide occurring in Gaza, according to research by the Tamaror research group for Israeli-Palestinian conflict studies, led by Professor Gilad Hirschberger from Reichman University.
The research analyzed casualty data from Gaza from Nov. 2023 to the present, focusing
on the proportion of men aged 17-55 among the deceased, representing the demographic most likely to include active combatants.
Findings revealed a "consistent and gradual reduction in total Palestinian casualties (in Gaza) throughout the conflict period."
As the conflict progressed, men aged 17-55 represented an ever-growing percentage of total fatalities. "Recent months show fighting-age casualties approaching 50% of the total...indicating military efforts focus on eliminating terrorists."
"This indicates successful efforts to target terrorists while protecting civilians. If Israel intended population destruction, military operations would target all demographic segments equally, and Hamas's own data would reflect this pattern. Current evidence shows no such pattern."
Hamas Will Not Surrender Control over Gaza without Being Forced to Do So - Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp ( Telegraph-UK)
Hamas's unremitting intransigence over hostage release and a temporary peace settlement has brought Israel to the point of renewing offensive operations against the remaining areas of Gaza it does not yet control.
The only effective action against Hamas has come not from diplomacy but military force, which pressured them into surrendering many of the hostages.
Hamas is not going to surrender its control over Gaza without being forced to do so.
Israel is therefore left with no choice other than to press ahead and seize control over the rest of Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that, once Hamas is dealt with, he does not want Israel to remain in control of Gaza.
In any case, nothing can be concluded until the war is won.
Whatever arrangements are put in place, the IDF will have to maintain overall security control in critical defensive zones to prevent another Oct. 7.
Threats of recognition of a Palestinian state, arms embargoes and other Western measures against Israel are not going to stop this offensive moving on to its final conclusion.
The only thing that might is if this redoubled Israeli resolve causes Hamas to understand that the game is finally up.
In this part of the world, it is not diplomacy or compromise that holds sway, but overwhelming strength.
The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
Israel Could Cut Security Ties if UK Recognizes Palestine - Matt Dathan ( The Times-UK)
Israel is considering withdrawing defense and security cooperation with the UK if it goes ahead with recognizing Palestine, in a move that could undermine national security.
Diplomatic sources said that the Israeli government is examining the response as one of a range of options if Britain presses ahead with Palestinian recognition next month.
A diplomatic source said, "The UK has a lot to lose if Israel's government decides to take steps in response."
In recent years, Israel intelligence has provided crucial information to Britain's spy agencies about Iranian-backed threats in the UK, which now pose as big a threat to Britain as Russia.
The UK has also made use of Israeli-made drones for surveillance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israeli defense equipment has been credited with saving the lives of British soldiers during military conflict in both countries.
Israeli companies also sell weapons systems, parts and software to British companies such as BAE.
Israel Won't Escape the Trauma of Oct. 7 until Hostages Are Free - Emmanuelle Elbaz-Phelps ( Sunday Times-UK)
According to a study in May by the aChord Center, affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "64% of the Israeli public tend to agree with the statement that there are no innocent people in Gaza."
According to another poll by the Institute for National Security Studies, "only 35.5% of the public is troubled by the humanitarian situation in Gaza."
While the world has been covering the war in Gaza, Israelis have still not moved on from the horror of Oct. 7, when everything changed for everyone in this country.
|
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Netanyahu Vows to Take Full Control of Gaza, Liberate People from Hamas - Madison Colombo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday that he plans for Israel to take full control of Gaza, eliminate Hamas and eventually transfer governance to Arab authorities.
"We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free, and to pass it to civilian governance. The only way that you're [going to] have a different future is to get rid of this neo-Nazi army. The Hamas are monsters."
Netanyahu defended the aid distribution system in Gaza, arguing that the humanitarian crisis stems from Hamas's control and its looting of much of the provided aid. "They want people to be civilian casualties. They want a starvation policy that they themselves are trying to put into being. And we're doing everything to reverse that." (Fox News)
See also Video: Netanyahu Announces Israel Will Take Control of Gaza (Fox News)
See also Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Gaza Takeover - Danny Zaken
The Israeli Security Cabinet on Friday approved taking control of all areas of Gaza to defeat Hamas. The cabinet adopted five principles for ending the war: disarming Hamas, returning all hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, Israeli security control over Gaza, and establishing an alternative civilian government that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
It was decided that an alternative plan presented to the Security Cabinet to impose a siege on areas where Hamas remains active would not achieve Hamas's defeat nor the return of the hostages.
(Israel Hayom)
- Vice-President Vance: U.S. Won't Follow UK in Recognizing Palestinian State - Oliver Wright
Meeting British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance was critical of the UK's changed position on recognition of a Palestinian state. Vance said, "We have no plans to recognize a Palestinian state. I don't know what it would mean to really recognize a Palestinian state, given the lack of functional government there."
Vance said the U.S. had two "very simple" goals in Gaza. "Number one, we want to make it so that Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again, and we think that has to come through the eradication of Hamas. Second, the president has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, so we want to make sure that we solve that problem....Obviously, it's not an easy problem to solve, or it would have already been dealt with." (Sunday Times-UK)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israeli Military Pressure Aims to Force Hamas into Negotiations - Ron Ben-Yishai
The Israeli cabinet's decision on the IDF's next moves in Gaza aims to apply measured and escalating pressure on Hamas to return to substantive negotiations. The strategy is designed to avoid exacerbating risks to the hostages. For the first time, Israel has formally articulated the conditions under which it would agree to end the conflict, as well as its plans for the "day after."
The cabinet's decision does not represent a significant departure from the status quo. Israeli forces are not currently required to launch a full-scale ground operation into Gaza City. Instead, they are maintaining positions on the outskirts of three key enclaves that have yet to be penetrated. The ongoing strategy involves encircling and depleting Hamas-controlled areas while systematically dismantling its military infrastructure both above and below ground.
The most significant point of leverage currently in play is the evacuation of Gaza City's civilian population and the implicit threat of a ground invasion within two months should Hamas refuse to engage in negotiations. Evacuated civilians are to relocate to areas between the Philadelphi Corridor and Morag Corridor, where temporary shelters and humanitarian aid distribution centers are being established.
If the evacuation proceeds as planned, it would remove 800,000 to 1 million residents from Hamas's control.
(Ynet News)
- Israel to Delay Seizing Control of Gaza for Two Months - Danny Zaken
The Israeli Cabinet decision on Gaza was a compromise formula that adopted the principle of seizing control of Gaza but delayed it by two months to allow for better military readiness and to give diplomatic efforts more time. Diplomatic discussions with the U.S. underscored that while Washington fully accepts that Hamas is responsible for the failure of negotiations so far, and fully supports its disarmament and removal from Gaza, it strongly prefers that diplomatic avenues be exhausted.
This means that for at least the next two months, the IDF will maintain military pressure from the current lines, with limited advances in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood and along the Netzarim Corridor.
Mediators are now pushing for a deal that would fully end the war, secure the rapid release of all hostages, demilitarize Gaza, and see the IDF withdraw to new security lines. Mediators have warned Hamas in recent days that without their agreement, responsibility for the full destruction of Gaza and the population's ongoing suffering would rest squarely on Hamas and its leaders. (Israel Hayom)
- Palestinian Terrorism Has Been Significantly Weakened in Judea and Samaria - Elisha Ben Kimon
The IDF's anti-terrorism campaign in the West Bank between 2022 and 2025 has dramatically changed the security landscape of the region, senior IDF officials said Thursday. However, they cautioned that while terrorism has been significantly weakened, it has not been fully eliminated. Col. A. of the IDF Central Command said, "Today, we are taking unprecedented action, never before attempted," referring to the military operation launched in January in several refugee camps in northern Samaria known as terror hubs.
"We ended the dark cloud hovering over the Tulkarm, Jenin and Nur Shams camps. We destroyed 260 buildings and created 11 km. (6.8 miles) of open roads. This was not demolition for its own sake but to maintain freedom of operation." During the campaign, IDF forces uncovered 20 explosive laboratories and command and intelligence centers.
The military is now considering plans to rebuild infrastructure in the affected areas.
"We are in dialogue with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and they understand we have not come to wipe out the camps." He said it is now up to the PA to restore water and electricity and eventually allow residents to return. "Their security services are pleased that the terrorists are no longer there," he said. (Ynet News)
See also Israel Defense Minister: Terror Threats from Judea and Samaria Down by 80 Percent (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Weaponizing Starvation: Exposing Hamas's Food Warfare - Dr. Dan Diker
The New York Times' July 30th admission of misreporting of its front-page photograph of a
Palestinian child suffering from cerebral palsy and genetic disorders, misrepresented as a starvation victim, is the latest example of years of coordinated information warfare against Israel, transforming humanitarian concerns into strategic weapons to isolate and subvert the one democratic, Jewish-majority state.
Iran's Hamas proxy operatives have used disinformation warfare to win world opinion, defame Israel globally, and subvert it from within. The current media crusade accusing Israel of premeditated, systematic starvation of Gaza has successfully hijacked Western hearts and minds, increasingly isolating Israel internationally. Yet simple fact-checking would reveal the UN's failure to deliver massive amounts of humanitarian aid that Israel has facilitated.
Israel has begun to fire back. Israeli Consul General in New York Ophir Akunis launched an electronic billboard campaign in Times Square, displaying images and video of emaciated Israeli hostages with the message, "Stop the Fake news in Gaza. This is what real hunger looks like. This is what truth looks like. Israeli hostage Evyatar David, held in Hamas terror dungeons for some 670 days since the October 7th invasion, is being starved by a Nazi terrorist organization that dares, with the backing of parts of the media, to spread the blood libel that Israel is starving the people of Gaza."
Success in weaponizing humanitarian law against democratic states establishes precedents that threaten the Western alliance. Recognizing this crusade as a weapon of Islamic warfare is the first step toward developing effective countermeasures. This is a critical moment for moral and strategic clarity.
The writer is President of the Jerusalem Center.
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
- In Gaza, the Real Problem Is Distribution - Ophir Falk
The core problem in Gaza is distribution. There are massive amounts of uncollected food and aid rotting away in the sun on the Gazan side of the border because the UN is unwilling to distribute it. According to the IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, only about 20% of the aid that gets to the Gaza border is actually distributed.
According to the UN, 85% of aid that they bring into Gaza is stolen by Hamas or other armed groups before it reaches those in need. Hamas and its facilitators prefer that Gazans starve, most preferably on the front page of the New York Times, than for food to be distributed by any organization that is not controlled by Hamas. That is the basic untold truth.
A key sticking point in the hostage negotiations is that Hamas insists on having veto power on who can distribute food in Gaza. Hamas insists that all the aid be distributed by the Red Crescent and UN organizations like UNRWA. Why? Because Hamas controls them. Hamas adamantly opposes the distribution of food by the Gazan Humanitarian Fund or any other organization that it does not control.
Hamas made more than $500 million in 2024 from diverting aid. By looting and reselling humanitarian aid at inflated prices, Hamas funds its attacks and recruits new terrorists. Hamas demands, "Let our groups distribute the goods, or nobody distributes the goods."
The writer is a foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
(New York Sun)
- Israel Cannot Prevent Palestinian Adulation for Hamas, but Can Debilitate Its Capacity for Harm - Prof. Efraim Inbar
Wars sow destruction and suffering. People are killed in Gaza, many of them Hamas terrorists. A significant number of civilian casualties are due to Hamas's use of them as human shields. There are pockets of hunger because of problems with distributing food inside Gaza.
Hamas behaves similarly to warlords in disaster-stricken areas. Those armed with guns take over the humanitarian aid and eat well. Hamas, like its Islamist counterparts, is willing to sacrifice its own people for attaining maximalist political objectives.
The world sees the suffering of Gazans, forgetting that the war started with Hamas acts of horror on Oct. 7. Compassion is directed toward Gazans who are indeed unfortunate, but most of them chose Hamas in democratic elections. All polls testify to the great popularity of Hamas. The inevitable conclusion is that Hamas and Gaza residents bear the moral responsibility for the tragedy in Gaza. Its residents supported Hamas and some of them participated joyfully in the atrocities initiating the war.
Israel's operations in Gaza are intended to prevent additional suffering for the Israeli population that has been Hamas's target. Defending the population is a state's paramount moral obligation. This requires destroying Hamas's military capabilities. Israel cannot prevent Palestinian adulation for Hamas, but it has the power to debilitate its capacity for harm.
Therefore, Israel focuses on crushing Hamas while trying to alleviate as much as possible the suffering of the non-involved in combat. Leaving Hamas armed in Gaza will only lead to the continuation of the threat to Israel's residents. The survival of Hamas rule would be a victory for the most extreme elements acting against Israel. Hamas will not disarm voluntarily. Yet only Israel is willing to sacrifice soldiers to see Hamas surrendering its weapons.
The writer is head of the Program for Strategy, Diplomacy and Security at the Shalem Academic Center and a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
(Jerusalem Post)
- Israel Lacks Good Options in the War Against Hamas - Jonathan S. Tobin
What are the options facing Israel in Gaza? It can, as most of its ill-wishers demand, give up on the war to destroy Hamas and concede that when the dust settles, it will return to ruling Gaza.
The most obvious alternative to that dismal prospect is for Israel to finally go into the last parts of Gaza still under Hamas control, wipe out the terrorists and destroy their last strongholds, removing the threat of additional Oct. 7-style invasions. The downside to that scenario is that this will likely endanger the remaining living hostages and expose the Israel Defense Forces to more attacks and casualties.
By choosing to complete the destruction of Hamas, Netanyahu is showing that he understands some basic truths that his critics are choosing to ignore or deny. One is the belief that Israel can improve its image abroad, or answer the lies about its causing starvation in Gaza, by choosing sensible policies.
The demonization of Israel began the day after Oct. 7 and illustrates that the claims of "genocide" and "starvation" have nothing to do with Israeli actions. Israel was already being falsely accused of "occupying" Gaza prior to Oct. 7, despite the fact that it had withdrawn every soldier and civilian in 2005. Any decision based on the hope that its image will improve by some act of generosity or appeasement is a dangerous delusion.
The second truth is that Hamas will never willingly release all of the hostages. The continued plight of those who remain alive is a festering wound at the heart of the nation. But Hamas will not give them up in exchange for anything but an internationally recognized Palestinian state that will be used as a platform to continue the war against Israel.
It is Netanyahu's unenviable job to choose to defend Israel's security. Hanging back and letting Hamas stay where it is, is simply a formula for its eventual return. The terrorists will be right to claim that they have won the war they started, and they will continue it. There's no way to ensure that Gaza doesn't return to being a Hamas fortress without occupying all of it and ensuring that Israel is in charge of its security for the foreseeable future. Israel is choosing the least bad of all the available options. (JNS)
Iran
- Israel Secretly Recruited Iranian Dissidents to Attack Their Country - Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv
On June 13, teams of Israeli-trained commandos recruited from Iran and neighboring nations attacked Iranian defenses from within. Some 70 commandos opened fire with drones and missiles on anti-aircraft batteries and ballistic missile launchers. The next day, another group of Iranians and others launched a second wave of attacks inside Iran. Ten present and former Israeli intelligence officials said the attacks were pivotal in allowing Israel's air force to carry out wave after wave of bombing runs without losing a single plane.
The attack had been planned for more than a year by Israel's Mossad intelligence service.
While for years, missions in Iran had been the exclusive work of Israeli field operatives, the agents in Iran
were not Israelis. Officials said the growing unpopularity of the Iranian regime has made it much easier to attract agents.
Some were seeking revenge against a repressive, clerical regime that had imposed strict limits on political expression and daily life. Others were enticed by cash, the promise of medical care for family members or opportunities to attend college overseas.
In 2000, the Mossad discovered that the Iranians were building a secret uranium enrichment plant near Natanz. The agency tipped off an Iranian dissident group, which went public with the revelation two years later. Mossad veterans said that operatives - likely Israelis posing as Europeans installing or servicing equipment - walked around Natanz wearing shoes with double soles that collected dust and soil samples. Testing revealed that the Iranian centrifuges were enriching uranium well beyond the 5% level needed for a nuclear power plant. (ProPublica)
Israel and the West
- Hamas's Quiet Win in the Court of International Opinion - Irwin J. Mansdorf
Hamas has invested in shaping perceptions, seeding narratives, and nudging otherwise well-meaning publics to amplify messages that serve its core goals. Across the U.S., protests and moral arguments have centered on stopping the war - an urgent, humane aim. Hamas aligns with the most resonant, emotive message in democratic societies: end the bloodshed now. The overlap of aims (different motives, similar message) is the sweet spot of modern psychological warfare.
Democracies thrive when citizens speak freely. Yet free expression is not free of consequence. Genuine compassion can be repurposed into someone else's strategic communications.
In the campus arena, young people are primed to rally around universal rights and liberation narratives. Hamas's playbook is to attach the group's demands to broadly appealing principles - ceasefire, dignity, academic freedom - so that every podium and placard becomes a force multiplier for a cause most demonstrators would never consciously embrace.
The result is a perceptual victory: viewers at home encounter the same demand ("end the war now") from both a violent faction and their own neighbors. The shared chorus makes the faction sound normal and critics sound extreme.
Persuasion beats performative certainty. Many people - especially the young - arrive at this issue underinformed and overexposed to social pressure. When presented with facts, a meaningful share changes its mind. That's a call to argue better, not shout louder.
The writer is a clinical psychologist and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs specializing in political psychology.
(Jerusalem Post)
- Israel Has No Choice but to Dismiss Western Pressure - David M. Weinberg
Israel has no choice but to dismiss Western protests and pressures, such as recognition of ersatz Palestinian statehood, and instead act independently to secure its future. This is because the world has been consistently wrong throughout Israel's history about almost every security issue.
Western leaders were wrong about investing disastrous degrees of trust and billions of wasted dollars on the corrupt, dictatorial, human rights-abusing, antisemitic, and terrorist-sponsoring Palestinian Authority. For decades, they have ignored and even at times cooperated in the PA's campaign to demonize and criminalize Israel in international forums, all the while perpetuating the Palestinian victim-refugee-martyrdom identity and applying the soft bigotry of low expectations to the Palestinians.
Western leaders and analysts have been consistently blind to the genocidal nature of the Palestinian national movement, both Fatah and Hamas. 3/4 of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre.
And they have been wrong about responsibility for the current war in Gaza, calling almost from day one on Israel to halt its military operations against Hamas. Instead, they tolerate Palestinian "Days of Rage," "Nakba Day" riots, and missile barrage eruptions as expected behavior.
As if responsible and reasonable behavior, such as negotiation, peaceful discourse, and normative state-building, cannot be demanded of the Palestinians.
Unfortunately, the exaggerated threat of the complete collapse of Israel's diplomatic and economic worlds is an old trick pulled down off the shelf every couple of years to force Israel into submission; to frighten the Israeli public into retreat and withdrawal, to scare-off Israelis from reasonable policies by inflating their dangers. Israel must make its diplomatic-security decisions free of false threats, without having to mollify fidgety forecasters of doomsday.
The writer is a senior fellow at Misgav: The Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy.
(Israel Hayom)
- The West Should Stand with Israel - Mick Hume
Since the Islamist terrorists of Hamas started the war with the antisemitic pogrom of Oct. 7, from the start, many turned the truth and moral judgement on its head to accuse Israel of committing genocide by waging war against the genuinely genocidal death cult of Hamas. Everything is now twisted to cast Israel in the role of bloodthirsty aggressor. Every lie broadcast by Hamas (aka "the Gaza health ministry") is repeated. Supposedly serious commentators repeat blatant blood libels about Israel deliberately shooting Palestinians queuing for food and "using starvation as a weapon of war."
There is plenty of evidence to show that, in fact, Israel has done more than any army in history to limit civilian casualties, that Israel is probably the first nation at war to try to feed rather than starve its enemies, and that Hamas is ultimately to blame for all the suffering in Gaza. Indeed, unlike the Israelis, the Islamists really do have a policy of deliberately causing - and celebrating - the death of Palestinian civilians.
Those who started the war with the slaughter of families and festival goers are being rewarded for it by supposed leaders of Western civilization. Thus Macron, Starmer and the rest are giving Hamas a prize for launching a pogrom, a reward for mass rapes, a bouquet for butchering Jews. Little wonder that Hamas announced soon afterwards that it has no interest in discussing any peace deal until Israel surrenders.
The European elites have convinced themselves that they are on "the right side of history" by aiding Hamas in its jihad to reduce the number of Jewish states to nil. Whatever Western leaders might imagine, Islamists are not interested in any dream of a peaceful "two-state solution."
Hamas demands one state, an Islamic caliphate "from the river to the sea." That means wiping the Israeli state off the map.
To the elites who despise our own Western civilization, history and democracy, Israel is their hate figure because it dares to stand up and fight for its national sovereignty and people, and defend to the end the principles that the West has abandoned. We should make clear that, in the real world, we stand foursquare with the Israelis, not only in their demand for the return of the remaining hostages, but in their determination to do what is necessary to defeat Hamas.
(European Conservative)
Observations:
- A broad Arab discussion is developing regarding the outcomes and implications of the war Hamas initiated on Oct. 7. Alongside the deepening recognition of Israeli power, a prominent question arises about the future of armed resistance and the future of the militias, given the severe blow to Iran's "axis of resistance." What is the point of continuing armed resistance if it only causes harm and does not serve its founding purpose?
- Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas figure, recently published a series of articles calling on the Muslim Brotherhood to undertake profound soul-searching, arguing that the movement's failures outweigh its successes. Since the Arab regimes view Hamas as part of the Brotherhood, they feel justified in ignoring the destruction taking place in Gaza and even in conspiring against the Islamic resistance movements, portraying them as their declared adversary.
- Yousef proposes that Hamas and the Brotherhood "explicitly renounce armed violence in domestic and all other arenas where weapons are used in the name of Islam," so Islam will not be branded as a religion of terror and to prevent foreign intervention.
- The implications of this and similar messages from Muslim thinkers is that the legitimacy Hamas once enjoyed has significantly diminished since the Oct. 7 massacre. It crossed the boundaries of what was considered a legitimate act of "resistance" and is now perceived as advancing a foreign agenda in the Arab world. The belief that the Oct. 7 attack would help the factions of the Brotherhood regain eroded power has been disappointing, as the results of the attack have been, in fact, the opposite.
- The Palestinian Authority (PA) sees it as Hamas's war - not the Palestinians' - refuses to assist it, and even wishes for its elimination as a military entity. Similar positions aiming to exclude Hamas from governance are expressed by prominent Arab commentators. Their view is that Palestinians must
remember that eventually, they will have to live with Israel. This may suggest an expanding acceptance that Israel is not a temporary reality among those who previously denied it.
- As it becomes clearer that friction with and resistance against Israel does not destabilize it but rather strengthens it and its influence, Israel's adversaries are compelled to reassess their positions.
Now, many influential voices in the Arab world, including those close to Hamas, are calling on it and ideologically-aligned militias to lay down their arms and cease armed resistance.
The writer is a senior researcher at INSS.
|