The Arab affairs commentator, Zvi Yehezkeli, warns that the Trump administration – together with the mediators in the hostage deal – is about to bring about a situation in which Hamas will remain in power in the Gaza Strip.
“The mediators’ working assumption is that you cannot remove Hamas from power. They are assuming that it will simply return rebranded. You can include Hamas in any government and they know how to operate in a ‘quiet jihad.’ The mediators tell Hamas, ‘Give Israel all the bodies and then you will see Gaza’s rehabilitation and your return to power. You will benefit from it’,” explains Yehezkeli.
He adds, “Hamas sees the Americans pushing us toward the second stage and to rehabilitate Gaza, and that is the problem. Israel must understand that what is being drafted before our eyes is the return of Hamas to Gaza without disarming. The question is whether Israel has leverage in the agreement to prevent that. The second stage of the agreement is a very problematic stage in which not only will we still have Hamas in Gaza, but there will again be a government there that does not accept our existence.”
He says, “The US wants to show that the agreement is stronger than any reality. I believe there may be calm under the Trump agreement, but calm that is not good for us. Under its auspices they arm themselves, build and rehabilitate. In the long term this is bad. We haven’t seen what happens when things are calm – it leads to complacency. At the moment Israel must stand, even against Trump, and tell him what is forbidden and what is permitted in the Gaza Strip.”
