Five days ago, I posted a blog about the genocide happening in Gaza. You will find it here. Since then, events have moved fast. Trump has finally accepted that mass starvation is rife in Gaza – “Can’t be faked,” he said. That’s a start, but what will Trump do about it? He went on to say, “Nobody’s done anything great over there. The whole place is a mess… I told Israel maybe they have to do it a different way.” Is that it? Pathetic!

Air drops have started, with two aircraft carrying humanitarian aid equivalent to two large trucks full of aid on the ground. Air drops are useless. Absolutely useless. A drop in the ocean. Symbolic only. Gives a momentary feel-good reaction when we see parachutes with humanitarian payloads descending into the rubble that is now Gaza, but does nothing to alleviate the suffering of an estimated two million displaced people living in tents with very little sanitation, medical care, food and clean water.

And two readers have commented on my blog, both saying roughly the same thing; that I said very little about Hamas being the cause of the war. I agree I didn’t say much about Hamas’s role in the war but I do not agree that Hamas is the cause of the war. Let’s explore

There is no doubt that, from Israel’s perspective, Hamas was a terrorist group to be feared before the 7/10/2023 attack and ensuing massacre of Israeli civilians on Israeli soil, in which over one thousand hostages were taken. Prior to this event, Hamas had conducted a long and bloody war against Israel’s occupation and suppression using tactics such as suicide bombers, rocket and mortar launches, hostage taking, cross-border incursions, tunnel warfare, and targeted assassinations. Since 7/10/2023, Hamas has continued to conduct its war against Israel, but, in my opinion, is now a spent force. I believe that Iran still supports Hamas, militarily and financially, but that the recent combined Israel/USA attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, plus Israel’s weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon, have placed Iran’s support in question.

Thus weakened, Hamas has one bargaining chip left in its attempts to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire and to the agreement of a two-state solution – that is, the remaining 50 hostages, only 20 of whom are thought to still be alive. The mistake Hamas is making, in my opinion, is to believe that Netanyahu cares about these hostages. I think Netanyahu doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about the hostages. All Netanyahu wants now is a complete annexation of the Gaza Strip and no world recognition of the Palestinian’s right to statehood. He wants to incorporate the Strip completely into Israel, thus extending its geographic area and, more importantly, having command of the Mediterranean coast from Lebanon down to Egypt. Netanyahu’s tactics in the West Bank have the same ambition – annexation and complete ejection of the non-Israeli inhabitants. Look at the map:

Israel regards the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as major threats to Israel’s security. Netanyahu wants these areas to become an integral part of Israel, thus leaving clearly defined borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. If he can achieve this, and gain control of all of Jerusalem (that’ll be a tough one), he has only to contend with possible terrorists, mostly coming from either Lebanon or Syria. Jordan’s relationship with Israel is a tightrope walk: cooperation in private, condemnation in public, but only a few isolated incidents of terrorist actions originating from within Jordan have been reported.

Egypt similarly. The 1979 Camp David peace treaty is still in force, but tensions within the Egyptian government are rising, partly because of Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing in May 2024, but more significantly because Egypt fears a mass displacement of Gaza Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula. If this happened, Egypt would view it as a security threat, and it could lead to direct conflict with Israel.

Hamas’s refusal to give up the remaining hostages is exactly what Netanyahu wants. It gives him the excuse to continue his genocidal elimination of the Palestinians in Gaza. He claims there is no starvation in Gaza – ” a bold-faced lie” – despite overwhelming evidence that people in Gaza are dying from malnutrition and lack of medical care. He claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid from the few lorries that he allows to enter Gaza, but produces no evidence to support this. He allows the IDF to kill indiscriminately: women, children, medical and humanitarian aid workers, and internal self-appointed journalists, saying that these people are members of Hamas or are supporting Hamas, again with no proof. He walks away from any negotiations to create a ceasefire, saying that until Hamas releases the hostages, he refuses to negotiate. He refuses to accept any deal that includes a two-state solution, knowing that this will cause Hamas to walk away from the negotiation table. In short, Netanyahu does not want Hamas to release the hostages. By not doing so, Netanyahu can justify his continuing elimination of the inhabitants of Gaza and flattening of their cities and infrastructure so that no-one can return to live there. (Satellite before-and-after images have revealed large parts of northern Gaza bulldozed and systematically destroyed, making them effectively uninhabitable for any returning former inhabitants.)

Netanyahu’s only objective now is to force the Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and West Bank out of these territories. He cares not where they go. He does not want their claims to the lands they live in legitimised via statehood. If full statehood is approved by countries such as the UK, France, Germany and, most importantly, the USA, and subsequently by an overwhelming majority of the world’s countries, the Gaza Strip and West Bank will become Palestine and Netanyahu will never be rid of their presence in what he claims is land that belongs to Israel. Netanyahu accuses any government that recognises the Palestinian’s right to sovereignty of “rewarding Hamas”. This is nonsense. Hamas is the result of Israel’s occupation and suppression of the Palestinians since 1994 (West Bank) and 2005 (Gaza Strip). Hamas is not being rewarded for its terrorism. Israel is being punished for its subjugation of the Palestinian people.

So, what’s the solution? Simple. For Hamas to immediately release all the hostages, alive and dead, declare an immediate ceasefire, lay down their arms, and disband. Think about it. If Hamas did this, Netanyahu’s reasons to continue the military offensive and starvation policy collapse. You can’t fight a war if the opposing army disbands and reverts to the civilian population. Netanyahu will be forced to halt all military operations and permit the passage of humanitarian aid convoys into the camps. And, I suspect, with all the world’s sympathy directed towards the besieged Palestinians, there would never be a better time for the Palestinian Authority, PA, to push hard for statehood, citing full compliance with the four legal conditions specified by the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States:

• A permanent population.
• A defined territory (Gaza Strip and West Bank)
• An effective government (the PA)
• The capacity to enter into relations with other states (via the PA)

Will Hamas see reason and capitulate? Now is the time to do it.

(^_^)