You almost have to appreciate the chutzpah of Hamas’s negotiating tactics. The Wall Street Journal reports on the debate among Arab states over whether Hamas will get to stick around for whatever comes after this war. As a result, we get museum-worthy sentences like the following:
“Most Hamas officials concede that the group is unlikely to survive as ruler in Gaza. But having weathered 15 months of brutal fighting, the group’s Gaza-based hard-liners want it to remain an armed force that can exert influence behind the scenes and potentially return to fighting Israel, Arab and Hamas officials said.”
Oh, well, is that all they’re asking for? Seems reasonable.
This ongoing debate inspires deep skepticism toward the eventual formation of a pan-Arab plan for Gaza. Hamas is the reason for Gaza’s devastation. It is also the reason this war isn’t over. Ideally, Hamas would be fired into the sun, but Israel is willing to let Hamas’s leaders leave the Gaza Strip alive as long as they stay away.
There is one clear goal regarding postwar Gaza: The absence of Hamas. That absence could be brought about by the terror government’s total defeat in the battlespace or by its surrender, in which it would hand over all governing institutions to an approved non-Hamas entity after returning the remaining hostages.
The reason Hamas cannot be left in a position of political power in Gaza is that such an outcome would guarantee the resumption of war. Hamas has made clear, through its statements just as much as its behavior, that as long as it survives it will launch periodic wars of annihilation against Israel. In a region as confusing and volatile as the Middle East, this is one of the few things we know with certainty: Death, taxes, and Hamas trying to burn people alive.
No one disputes this, and no one is naïve to it. If you support leaving Hamas in Gaza, it means you are comfortable with the status quo of permanent war. Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist, and because of its foreign backing (Iran, Qatar, Turkey) it cannot easily be dislodged by rival parties, even if there were rival parties willing to take it on.
All of which makes Hamas’s overtures remarkably daft. The West wants Hamas out of government because it wants an end to the cycle of war. So Hamas… promises to stay out of government but asks only that it be allowed to remain for the sole purpose of waging war?
Egypt is trying to be accommodating, so it has proposed a middle ground: Hamas disbands as a party but Hamas members join a new joint governing committee with officials from the Palestinian Authority and—crucially—Hamas leaders turn over missiles and rockets to be guarded by a third party until the establishment of a Palestinian state. “But Hamas’s senior negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, categorically refused the proposal during a meeting with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Hassan Rashad, in February, Egyptian and Hamas officials said,” the Journal reports.
Again, the fact that Hamas officials are among the sources here takes a lot of the guesswork out of these negotiations. We don’t have to wonder if Hamas is aware of what’s being floated on its behalf. Hamas is part of the conversation. And it is saying very clearly that it exists for the sole purpose of total war against the Jews.
This is why Hamas’s presence makes it harder to raise financial contributions from any donor nation not named Qatar. It is a waste of money to build structures that Hamas will immediately rig with explosives.
The choice here, according to Hamas itself, is between Hamas and the possibility of a peaceful life for Palestinians. Those who are even considering choosing the former should stop lecturing Israel, the U.S., or anyone else about the welfare of the Palestinians.
