Until Gaza Disarms & Deradicalizes, 10/7 Lives On

The ethics embraced by generations of Jewish thought place the highest importance on sanctifying life, including the freeing of captives for a high ransom, “You shall not harden your heart” (Deuteronomy 15:7); “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your brother” (Leviticus 19:16); “the redeeming of captives is a great mitzvah” (Talmud, Bava Batra 8b). The people of Israel and the Jewish nation the world over finally celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah with joy and relief, knowing that all twenty live hostages held by Hamas have been finally returned home.

Thanks to President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s persistence, the brave dedication of the Israel Defense Forces, and the commitment of Arab and Muslim — not European — partners to seeing this through, Israeli and Gazan civilians can begin to heal. We should celebrate that precious milestone. We must, however, not lose sight of the fact that no civilian in Israel or Gaza can fully rest while Hamas remains in power.

As the terrorist organization comes to terms with the heavy losses of fighters and leadership that it sustained after its attacks on October 7, 2023, its elimination from Palestinian politics (a core war objective of the Israeli government) is now appearing grim and bleak. Palestinians who yearned, suffered, organized, and even fought for a different future are now beginning to be abandoned by the Israeli forces’ withdrawn from Gaza’s major cities. As circulated and publicized widely, Palestinians and anyone suspected of aiding their cause for freedom are now being gunned down by Hamas for treason to their terror.

The release of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism, including 250 life-termers, as another concession by Israel is a devastating calculus and comes with a price all too familiar to Israelis. With the memory of Yahya Sinwar’s release in a swap in 2011, and his subsequent rise to Hamas power and masterminding of 10/7, the uneven exchange this week of a myriad of prisoners for hostages cannot be understood by spectators as anything but the same seeds that sowed October 7th in the first place.

The audacious 20-point plan of President Trump, garnering the unprecedented support of major Muslim states from Indonesia and Pakistan, all the way to Qatar and Egypt, is no more applicable than what these states are willing to perform. What these states were granted in return is as obscure to public knowledge as what precise terms are being revisited and abrogated in the negotiations right now, including by Hamas. At the minimum, in the hands of America and Israel are three unmistakably vital objectives that remain: (1) the release of the remaining bodies of murdered hostages, (2) the disarmament of Hamas and other factions in Gaza, and (3) the deradicalization of the entire Strip.

The tension that tore apart Israeli society over the past 738 days after countless sacrifices endured by hostage families and families of fallen soldiers was the tension between ensuring the hostages of today were liberated from their brutal suffering and the effort to ensure that Hamas terror, the taking of hostages, and wars in Gaza in the future would cease for good. We now see an opening where Hamas, reconsolidating and untouched, may violate the ceasefire’s intended parameters and push back against relinquishing its arms and its political power. It has already rebranded in part, comprising the de facto interim governing and policing force — with or without green headbands. Given the scale of suffering endured by Israelis and Gazans over the past two years, this frozen result is nothing short of catastrophic. Frankly, it affirms that the heaviest sacrifices of Israelis and Gazans over the past twenty years of wars appear in vain.

Hamas doesn’t linger on without its setbacks — aside from repeatedly losing its leadership and the axis leadership of Iranian-backed patrons and proxies (a true miracle of Israel’s seven-front war), Hamas recovers territory ravaged by destruction above and below ground, including hundreds of miles of its subterranean network of terror tunnels. Furthermore, Hamas does not possess the Gaza perimeter bordering Egypt, the Mediterranean, and Israel to easily smuggle in more malicious materials for war and easily penetrate Israel again. Yet, Hamas still subjects the fate of Gazan civilians to belligerence, repression, and devastation, without any accountable Arab regime to follow through on the outlined commitment to fill in withdrawn IDF posts and disarm them. Hamas remains emboldened to repeat war and their atrocities again and again.

Unless President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu correct course and follow through on an actionable plan to disarm, dismantle, and replace Hamas’s rule with an interim and localized technocratic body of reform, we will inevitably see more terror and bloodshed. If stated promises made by Hamas leaders to repeat the acts of October 7th are more genuine and reliable than our own promises to disarm them, they will be right. There can be no true change if another generation in Gaza, born in a war of jihad their leaders started, is raised only to die waging it again.

Disarmament is the immediate teeth in the peace offered by this deal. A sincere and relentless dedication to deradicalization is the only thing that can make this region’s future look anything different than the present. A Gazan regime with substantial reform, sanctioned with the duty to join Israel, the United States, and trusted Arab partners to reform values in education, media, culture, faith, and governance for everlasting coexistence is not an insurmountable feat. It was achieved in Germany, Japan, and by many of Israel’s now Arab partners.

It will take a generation and more to deradicalize Gazan youth, with our full knowledge that extremism will resurge and pang and be defeated every time. Because it has to be. There must be concrete steps to advance this requisite to sustainable Palestinian autonomy. The world deserves to witness this requirement of deradicalization met, hold it to progress, and verify it with active guardrails.

Today, lovers of freedom and humanists of hope everywhere will celebrate this ceasefire, while the rageful will continue to balk and condemn. If Washington and Jerusalem correct the trajectory of the ceasefire, and ensure permanent disarmament and a credible path to deradicalization in the Palestinian territories, they will have made the immense sacrifices in this region not be in vain and delivered a brighter tomorrow. Celebration can be everlasting, mourning of this stage behind us, memory always preserved. If they do not correct course, it will be to history’s detriment, with us as victims of our own comfort in a world of conflict freezing and thawing yet again.