Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is a delusion

Last week Shiri Bibas and her two boys, Kfir and Ariel made it finally home, Yarden Bibas, the husband and father who was released from Hamas dungeon a couple of weeks before this event, said Kaddish at the burial of their tortured bodies. The body of Oded Lifshitz, the journalist and peace activist who was killed on October 7, came home to be buried as well as did bodies of several other hostages. Many more, both living and dead, remain in captivity, in Hamas hell. We are already asking “what’s coming next”? Next meaning for Yarden, did the monsters let him live so they can enjoy his suffering even from distance? Next meaning what will happen with the hostages remaining in Gaza tunnels There are more difficult days ahead for Israel and all Jews anyplace. It feels like déjà vu, October 7 all over again with the torture, rapes, brutal murders and body mutilations accompanied by sickening, sadistic celebrations of these ghastly crimes by their perpetrators, Hamas and their supporters. Hamas carefully stages these horrific scenes when the hostages are out Hamas lets them and us know who is the boss, the slave owner. They appear amused, though it is difficult to read their masked faces, but the hoi polloi in Gaza have fun, just like they had on October 7. By now it is clear that Hamas needs to be disarmed and gone from Gaza at the least, it is also clear that Hamas has no intentions to do either.

Hamasniks are the new Nazis, the ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Hamas has to go, and this is not an easy task. Surprisingly it has a lot of supporters and admirers not only in many Arab countries and in Iran, but also in the West, the academic world, journalists writing for media and newspapers (not just for Al-Jazeera) progressives and some other more extreme leftist groups and even some democrats love Hamas, or at least hate Israel more. It is interesting that these groups do not see the irony: they recognize white supremacists and neo-Nazis, they go after Le Pen’s National Front party or the German AfD, but not after Hamas. One thing speaks in favor for Le Pen and AfD parties aren’t known for atrocities, for barbaric treatment and murders like Hamas. The students and faculty on university campuses demonstrating for “free Palestine from the river to the sea” understand this perfectly well – destruction of Israel and killing as many Jews as possible. However, most people, mainly those working for media and newspapers, including politicians, intellectuals, artists and even some rabbis (remember the ad in NY Times from February 13?) pretend that if Gaza is rebuilt and Hamas somehow reforms itself into a peace partner in a pact with another peace partner, the Palestinian Authority and Israel agrees to the two-state solution everything will be groovy and awesome and peace will descend on the Middle East. I wonder whether they wish for destruction of Israel and annihilation of Jews, whether they got tired of us, uppity Jews. After all, we are eighty years after the Holocaust – isn’t this enough to stop repeating ourselves again and again. Holocaust should be just memories good for making Oscar winning movies (Adrien Brody getting another Oscar for the Best Actor, this time in The Brutalist, and Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor in A Real Pain, a movie about cousins’ visiting the Majdanek concentration camp).

The goal of Hamas in the short run is to reach “permanent” ceasefire and end of war with Israel, and force the world, or at least some wealthy players to rebuilt Gaza. Let’s consider the so- called permanent ceasefire – this was already in place before October 7, and it is not what people in the West and many other countries understand. For Muslims the term for permanent ceasefire is hudna, meaning temporary, at most 10 years lasting ceasefire – giving Hamas more than enough time to re-arm, re-assess and recruit many more fighters to attack Israel many more times. Hamas terrorists do not hide their intentions, on the contrary, even now they promise many more massacres in the style of October 7. Are we witnessing rehearsals in these sickening and revolting scenes accompanying release of hostages? We know about other, perhaps even more serious signs – they are recruiting new fighters to replenish their diminished ranks, they are rearming, and incite and actively participate in terrorism on the West Bank with open support of Iran. Beside Iran, Qatar is the most important financier and enabler of Hamas. For an excellent analysis of Qatar intentions and misplaced trust of the US I recommend to read analysis by Piny Dunner published in Algemeiner (Hamas’s Grotesque Parading of Hostage Bodies Shows True Face of Their Vile Ideology).

So far it appears that only the American administration understands that days of Hamas have to be numbered, the sooner the better. As Mike Waltz, the US National Security Advisor, announced that after the remaining hostages are released “Hamas will not rule Gaza. They will not cause another Oct. 7. And we will work with Israel to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Officials from other countries, especially from the Middle East need to join in word and deed. Before the two-state solution can be even considered several major transformations have to happen. The first most important step is getting rid of Hamas and other terrorist groups, no rebuilding of Gaza should even be considered before this happens. The Palestinian Authority needs to take up real reforms, not just the charade it is doing now.