Sinister Hamas terms would let it keep most hostages, win the war, inflame the West Bank

 Sinister Hamas terms would let it keep most hostages, win the war, inflame the West Bank (David Horovitz)

It took the US more than a day to internalize that Hamas had not in fact accepted a hostages-for-truce proposal. But the text of its ‘agreement’ is far more duplicitous than that

On Tuesday night, more than a day after Hamas claimed to have approved what it said was the Egyptian and Qatari mediators’ proposal “regarding a ceasefire agreement,” the US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller finally declared publicly, “That is not what they did.”

Rather, said Miller, “They responded with amendments or a counterproposal.” The US, he said, was “working through the details of that now.”

In summary

Under the terms that it has set out, therefore, Hamas expects to survive, rearm and reassert full control in Gaza, and establish primacy in the West Bank. Israel will be under attack on multiple fronts. The ambitious, improbable American vision of an Israel integrated into the region, at peace with Saudi Arabia, with a reformed PA ruling in the West Bank Gaza, will be shattered. Most of the hostages will still be held in Gaza, with no prospect of release. And Israel will be more torn and vulnerable than ever.

On Monday night, soon after the office of Hamas’s overall chief Ismail Haniyeh issued its ostensible acceptance of a ceasefire, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he had spoken with Haniyeh, who had assured him that “the ball is in the opposite court. We are honest in our intentions.”

Indeed, the document leaves no doubt about Hamas’s intentions. You just have to read it.