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Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-875012
You Cannot Build a Stable Peace with a Partner that Openly Prepares for the Next Massacre
(Media Line-Jerusalem Post) Giorgia Valente - Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, said that Washington's basic assumption that Hamas can be induced into a demilitarized political arrangement is flawed. "The Americans still believe they can implement the [ceasefire] plan by having the Turks, Qataris, and Egyptians pressure Hamas. They are convinced that with an international force and Arab involvement, Hamas will eventually comply. I think this is naive and wrong. Hamas does not intend to comply." For Michael, Hamas's behavior during and after the fighting shows that it sees any ceasefire not as an end state, but as a tactical pause. "They continued recruiting people, training them, rebuilding tunnels, and reconstructing their capacities from the first day of the ceasefire." "They butchered opponents in the streets, they appointed new governors, and they operated ministries. They are reconstituting their governmental and military capacities since day one. This is not the behavior of a movement preparing for demilitarization." "As long as Hamas remains in control and is committed to another Oct. 7, the American ceasefire framework will not get anywhere. You cannot build a stable peace with a partner that openly prepares for the next massacre. At some point, the United States will have to recognize that Hamas is the obstacle, not part of the solution." "Israel has to give the Americans the time and space to try their way, so that the responsibility for the failure of the plan falls on Hamas. But in the end, I believe they will move to Plan B, securing eastern Gaza under IDF oversight, expanding it gradually to the west while crushing and dismantling Hamas if it continues to violate the agreement." "Hamas will regroup simultaneously in Gaza, the West Bank, and other countries, rebuild its capacities, and look for the second opportunity for another Oct. 7. This is exactly the reason we have to crush them and dismantle them. As long as they hold on to their weapons and ideology, no ceasefire framework, American or UN, will produce real peace."