Stop the Negotiations

The negotiations between Israel and Gaza are an unmitigated disaster. But no one wants to admit it. Although of all the parties, Hamas has gotten the closest to saying the truth, stating the efforts are a “waste of time.” Whether in the next few weeks or in the year ahead, these efforts are doomed. Israel is trying to execute the war under the weight of U.S. demands, and Hamas is sitting back, watching the whole charade and knowing that it will collapse. Below is a link to a stunning video from Paul Stinchfield, who was present at this speech at the U.N. that describes the basis of this disaster.

How did we get to this point?

To begin, the U.S. should have minded its own business. Throughout the conflict, our country is certain that it knows the best way to carry out this war, and they have been proven wrong many times. As examples, they blamed Israel for not letting humanitarian aid through, ignoring that Hamas has stolen shipments for their own people. The U.S. stated that the Israelis would require weeks to move the Palestinians out of Khan Younis, when the Israelis completed the job in a fraction of the time. The U.S. also has conflicting goals, since they are probably more concerned with the November elections and having a “win” in the Middle East than they are with the Israelis being successful. And the U.S. has no right to make demands on how Israel should conduct the war; Israel is an independent country.

Meanwhile, the war drags on because there are no terms that will satisfy both sides. (You can read this article if you want the details of the May agreement.) These are the key differences:

1. Hamas essentially wants a permanent ceasefire; Israel will not agree, since they cannot trust Hamas to stop attacking Israel and Israelis. In addition, a permanent cease-fire would signal to all those entities sympathetic to Hamas that they have beaten Israel. Let’s not forget that Senior Hamas Official, Gazi Hamad said the following:

‘Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.... The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas uses to describe its attack on Israel] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth...’

2. Israel wants all the hostages to be released at once. Hamas disagrees, since they prefer to release them in stages to give them leverage. Meanwhile, hostages are dying in captivity; some of the deaths have been verified. Forces inside Israel who hate Netanyahu are insisting that the families of hostages demand a complete cease fire and release of all the hostages, even though this agreement would not be acceptable to either side.
3. The negotiators were a bizarre selection: Qatar is an ally of Hamas and can't be an effective arbiter; Egypt allowed Hamas for years to transport weapons through tunnels into Gaza. Israel wants to maintain control of the Philadelphi corridor where over 50 tunnels have been built; Hamas wants the corridor back.
4. Hamas demanded an exorbitant number of prisoners be released from Israeli jails; although they modified this number, they have insisted on the release of some of the most dangerous criminals. It’s important to remember that Sinwar, now head of the political side of Hamas, was imprisoned in Israel years ago and was released in a swap, only to become the creator of the October 7 debacle.
5. Israel must be given the weapons they need to bring this war to an end. Although there have been assurances that weapons have been ordered, it’s unclear whether those weapons have actually been delivered to Israel.
6. There is one issue where Hamas and Israel agree: neither wants an independent Palestinian state.

There are other conditions that make reaching an agreement nearly impossible. Hamas will not reject its original mission to destroy the Jewish state. The U.S. must take steps to stop Iran’s involvement. They must make Iran pay dearly, by bombing oil wells and stopping the sending of funds, to discourage Iran from supplying their proxies. The U.S. persists in threatening Israel with negative consequences, but it refuses to hold Hamas accountable for its actions. For example, Hamas carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv recently:

The backpack of explosives went off early, killing only the bomber, but the blast could have inflicted mass casualties at a nearby synagogue or soccer stadium. This was Hamas’s response to Mr. Biden’s offer. Hamas vowed Monday to carry out more suicide bombings, as it did throughout the 1990s—the last time it was trying to kill a peace deal—and the early 2000s. Mr. Biden’s answer is more talks. With or without Hamas, negotiators will soon be off to Cairo for another round.

The U.S. refuses to see that this negotiation is doomed to failure. The Left, in particular, believes as long as they just keep talking, there’s hope for a resolution. Joe Biden has given mixed signals about supporting Israel, and Kamala Harris didn't appear for Netanyahu’s speech to Congress when he spoke to that body. Then there was this most recent comment:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the latest Cairo summit is ‘probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.’ How many times can the Administration say this without embarrassment?

Stop the negotiations.