It wasn’t unexpected that Gaza’s populace would rejoice at the onset of a ceasefire. Even a mere pause in the bombings that have laid waste to the territory would understandably be greeted there.
Deeply saddening, though, was, amid the joy, the immediate emergence of thousands of Hamas combatants from civilian buildings.
“[They] have been here the whole time,” said Mohammed Abed, a resident of Gaza City who returned to his home, “but they were not wearing their uniforms… They were among the displaced people in the tents.”
Other residents said Hamas had maintained offices in hospitals and other locations throughout the war.
Makes one wonder just how many of the widely lamented “civilians killed” were… civilians.
More disconcerting still than Hamas’ apparently continued presence in Gaza is the
(actual) civilian populace’s support for the murderous mob. When the newly materialized terrorists redonned their masks and bandannas and waved Hamas flags, they received a hearty welcome from hundreds of Gazans in the streets.
The same embrace of terrorism is part of the societal fabric in Yehudah and Shomron, too.
An American film producer named Zach Fox recently released a video he recorded in Ramallah last summer. Not revealing his Jewish identity, he spoke to local residents.
“It was shocking,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “There was not one person… who didn’t love Hamas… It was unequivocal. All of them hated Jews with every bone of their body.”
He asked a woman if she was “okay” with what Hamas invaders did on October 7 and she responded, “With everything they did.”
The lady (used loosely) explained that “Jews have not been killed or exposed to any struggle or any violence.”
Another interviewee, asked if she wants “to live with the Israelis in peace,” answered: “No. I want a one-state solution. No Israel. We should delete Israel.”
Much focus has been on the proclaimed need for a postwar plan for a non-Hamas governance of Gaza. Now, though, with the realization that, while degraded in personnel and lairs, the terrorist group still enjoys an apparent surfeit of fighters and weapons, some nervousness has set in.
But the more ominous, if unnoted, elephant in the room is the Gazan citizenry. And, lying alongside it, its monstrous mate, the populace of Yehudah and Shomron.
The hope of a two-state solution—with Arabs self-governing as a peaceful neighbor of Israel—is exploded by the malignant hatred of Jews that saturates the societies that would populate yet another Arab state in the region.
There’s another hope, of course: that the new administration of the United States will wield its own weight to dissuade belligerent Arabs and their pernicious patron Iran from seeking to destroy Israel. President Trump, during the campaign, certainly fueled that hope.
But we would be starry-eyed to the point of blindness to not notice things like the president’s appointment of Michael DiMino, to replace Dan Shapiro, for deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. It is a role that will be involved in making decisions about military support for Israel.
Mr. DiMino has opposed using military force against the Houthis in Yemen, criticized the Abraham Accords for not addressing the Palestinian issue and even suggested that the US shouldn’t give Israel even “defensive support” against Hezbollah.
And then there’s Steve Witkoff, a longtime business partner of the president and now his special envoy to the Middle East. He reportedly pressured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to make concessions in the recent Israel-Hamas deal. What’s more, he recently said that it was “good” that Hamas reportedly wants to negotiate directly with the US and that he welcomed the potential for “a dialogue” with the terrorist entity.
Even as fervent a MAGA fan as radio host Mark Levin is chagrined.
“Say what?” posted Mr. Levin on X. “Witkoff said it is good if the United States talks directly with Hamas? Where’s the foreign policy A-Team?… Even Blinken didn’t suggest this. Hamas committed unimaginable acts of genocide. Now we’re willing to talk to them to better understand them [?]”
Times like ours remind us of Dovid Hamelech’s instruction in Tehillim (146:3): Al tivtechu vindivim, “Trust not princes.”
Trust, no. But hope, yes. And we must fuel our hope by beseeching the truly Trustworthy One to well guide the princes of our day.
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