American, Other Global Leaders Adopting Many of Hamas Chief’s Demands of Israel as Their Own

As global pressure on Israel grows, so does Hamas’s confidence that its war goals will soon be reached. The mastermind of its October 7 terrorist attacks, Yahya Sinwar, is banking on world leaders to help him reimpose Hamas’s rule over the Strip and to eventually eliminate the Jewish state by the sword. On the eve of Wednesday’s Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, Eid el-Fitr, Israeli officials tentatively agree to an American proposal for a hostage deal that includes a lengthened cease-fire. Hamas, for now, has rejected it, perhaps playing for time. “Hamas should accept this proposal immediately, and get the cease-fire that benefits people throughout Gaza, and of course get the hostages back home,” Secretary Blinken said Tuesday at London.Yet, American and other global leaders are now adopting many of Sinwar’s demands of Israel as their own. “So what incentive does he have to agree to this, or any hostage deal?” a top political reporter at Israel’s Kan News, Suleiman Maswadeh, says. On Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said “a date” has been already decided for an Israel Defense Force operation at Rafah, where Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders are holed up. A day later, Mr. Blinken said Washington had heard of no such date.A Rafah operation “would have an enormously harmful effect on the civilians and then it would ultimately hurt Israel security, so it’s not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us,” the Department of State’s spokesman, Mattew Miller, said. As a Washington-Jerusalem rift widens, the rest of the world is piling on. On Tuesday, Turkey announced a boycott on all Israeli products. A day earlier, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Presidents Macron of France and al-Sisi of Egypt wrote an op-ed demanding an immediate cease-fire, and opined against a Rafah operation. Writing in the Washington Post and the top newspapers in their countries, the three leaders stressed the “need to expand aid supplies” to Gaza, and claimed that “the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state” is “the only way to achieve true peace.”Following a French proposal for a Security Council resolution at the United Nations that envisioned the establishment of such a state, the Palestinian Authority’s observer there demanded Palestine be accepted as a full UN member. The council weighed the request on Monday.A large majority of polled Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza prefer Hamas to Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority. An independent state there will most likely be dominated by the terrorist organization that committed the October 7 atrocities, which Sinwar has long declared as his goal. Yet, Paris is now threatening sanctions against Israel. “There must be levers of influence and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions to let humanitarian aid cross check points,” the French foreign minister, Stephane Sejourne, said Tuesday. Israel facilitated the entry of 412 aid trucks into Gaza, the largest number for a one-day delivery since the start of the war. Hamas gunmen seized the trucks immediately after they arrived, re-establishing sole control over aid distribution in the Strip — and not only on aid.Soon after President Biden demanded last Friday an “immediate cease-fire” during a phone call to Mr. Netanyahu, the IDF withdrew from Deir el-Balah in southern Gaza. Hamas-affiliated engineers immediately entered the city to lay down water pipes, signaling they will oversee all future Gaza rehabilitation projects.The IDF left behind all but a small contingency in Gaza, holding a corridor in the Strip’s center. Now, Hamas is demanding a withdrawal of these troops so Gazans can return north freely after they were temporarily in southern Gaza. Israel says it needs to ensure that no armed Hamas members are among these returnees. The American-proposed hostage deal, which Hamas is yet to accept, reportedly includes the return of 150,000 Gazans to the north. Israel would also agree to a six-week cease-fire, and to free 900 imprisoned terrorists in its prisons. Hamas, in return, would release only 40 of the 133 hostages it still holds.After Jerusalem tentatively accepted the deal, Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet convened Tuesday for a final approval. Hamas, in contrast, said in a statement that the proposal fails to “meet any of the demands of our people and our resistance,” Reuters reported Tuesday. According to the proposal, 40 women, men over the age of 50, and sick hostages would be released. Yet, Axios reports that Hamas claims that many hostages are dead by now. Israel insists on the release of 40 living hostages, even if they include men under 50. Regardless, these cruel, cynical negotiations seem moot. America and our allies once demanded an “immediate, unconditional release of all hostages.” Now, instead, we seem to be insisting on a complete Hamas victory in Gaza and beyond.

American, Other Global Leaders Adopting Many of Hamas Chief’s Demands of Israel as Their Own

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