America’s ‘Grave Error’ in Gaza

“And the land was calm for 40 years,” is a biblical passage describing a peaceful period following Othniel’s victory over Judea’s enemies. Can we expect a similar period now, with the Gaza cease-fire? Unless Washington ends its love affair with Qatar and Turkey, odds are that the best we can expect is a 40-minute war lull. Asking Hamas allies to help disarm and sideline the Gaza-ruling terrorists is like asking Britons to join in “No Kings” chants. Negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Israel ahead of Vice President Vance’s arrival on Tuesday in an attempt to save the week-long cease-fire, which Hamas is violating. Yet Israelis are seething with frustration. “The Americans made a grave error when they brought Turkey and Qatar into the Gaza Strip, a mistake for the ages,” the leftist leader of Israel’s Democrats party, Yair Golan, said Monday, expressing what in Israel is a widely-held view. The next phase of President Trump’s 20-point plan calls for an interim multi-national force that will prepare the ground for a reformed, peaceful Palestinian leadership to eventually rule Gaza. Qatar already dispatched men and equipment to the strip, and 13 Turkish NGOs are working at Gaza City, removing debris and helping humanitarian efforts. Among them is the antisemitic IHH group that orchestrated the bloody Mavi Marmara provocation. IHH celebrated the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres. That November, a man Mr. Trump calls “a friend of mine,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, “Israel, we know you have an atomic bomb, but the moment of your death is coming. Have as many nukes as you want, you are a Goner.” Can we now trust Ankara, which for decades financed Hamas and hosted its leaders to now ease these terrorists out of Gaza?In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday Mr. Witkoff described the internal deliberations that led to a cease-fire. Despite the Israeli strike on the Hamas headquarters at Doha on September 9, he said, the Qataris agreed to help complete the deal. The opposite, though, is more likely: After months of advocating for Hamas, Qatar realized that the war could reach its gilded towers. That fear is what prompted Doha to finally lean on its Gaza ally to release hostages.Documents retrieved from Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces show that since the start of the war, messaging coordination between the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera network and Hamas was “neither random nor isolated, but systematic, organized, and continuous.” The deep cooperation between the network and Hamas is maintained after last week’s cease-fire — even as the terror organization is violating the deal’s terms. America is reportedly hoping to turn Rafah into a model for the future. The razed city in southern Gaza will be rebuilt and become a haven for non-Hamas Gazans. The plan will be overseen from Israel, where 200 American troops will monitor progress. Mr. Vance is expected to visit Gaza on Tuesday. Yet, as we plan ahead, Hamas is killing rivals in street executions right now. Turkey and Qatar are not there to stop the killings, but to help their Hamas ally. Since the cease-fire deal Hamas is slow-walking the release of hostage bodies. On Sunday it killed two Israeli soldiers near Rafah. Israel was about to answer these violations in a return to battle. Mr. Trump said Monday that “Israel would go in in two minutes if I asked them to go.” Yet Jerusalem is asked to give peace a chance. If it is allies of Hamas who enforce it, there’ll be no biblical “calm in the land,” and it won’t last 40 days, never mind 40 years.

America’s ‘Grave Error’ in Gaza

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