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Why Is Hamas So Confident that It's Winning?

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - In an interview with the New York Times, Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal revealed he thinks that Hamas is "winning the war" and that it will play a "decisive" role in Gaza in the future. One of the key fronts in this war is in the U.S., where the political battle over the war in Gaza has been going pretty much the way the terrorists wanted it to. After Oct. 7, the terrorists have been playing for time. And they expected that the time they needed to outlast the Israeli offensive would be provided to them by Israel's closest ally. President Joe Biden's initial response to the Oct. 7 massacre was to say that the only proper response was for Hamas to be "eliminated," but then he began to slowly back away from that position. Over the next several months, while Washington continued to supply Jerusalem with munitions badly needed by the IDF, the Pentagon started slow-walking their delivery to maintain leverage over the Israelis. Biden was heavily influenced by the open revolt against a pro-Israel policy from lower-level administrators and congressional staffers, as well as parts of his Democratic base. As a result, statements about the war soon were more about its impact on the Palestinians rather than the need to eliminate the terrorists who committed the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Rather than push back against demands for an immediate ceasefire that would essentially save Hamas, the administration began pushing for a deal that would end the war at virtually any price, even if it didn't result in freedom for all of the Israeli hostages. Administration officials were soon parroting the defeatist line about Hamas being an "idea" that could not be defeated. By adopting this position that regarded Hamas as an eternal force, the opportunity to convince Palestinians to give up their fantasies about Israel's elimination was thrown away and their century-long war on Zionism prolonged. Combined with the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism made obvious by the pro-Hamas encampments at elite universities, it gave Hamas every reason not to negotiate seriously for a hostage release deal. As Mashaal told the Times, Hamas viewed all of this as encouragement for its plan to hold out until U.S. and international pressure forced Israel to stand down and allow the Islamists to emerge as the victor in the war. Above all, Hamas views American pressure on Israel as its ace in the hole.
2024-09-19 00:00:00
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