Tactically Hamas is gaining advantages every day there is a ceasefire. They are able to move around and getting massive resupply coming in. We have seen trucks going in resupplying Gaza and Hamas. To get other hostages out for a day or two more, there is a strategic advantage for Israel. At some point, we have to go back to military operations to achieve the military objective, which is destruction of Hamas. Making sure they can never achieve another October 7 in the future.
Speaking yesterday to Peter Lerner, he is IDF. Something that struck me is that hostages were negotiated for Iran and Russia comes in for a release of their own. Do these outside the five-party negotiations, the other negotiations directly with Hamas do anything to undermine Israel’s strategic plan or advantage, not just in diplomacy, but on the battlefield?
I think they expose who is behind all of this and that is of course the Iranians. The Qataris play a part as Hamas sponsor and acting as mediator here. Pulling the strings with the Iranians. Russians are going to Iran and saying release citizens. It’s important to get Iran policy right. We should be pressuring that regime today and we’re not doing that, and one reason we had October 7.
President Biden made a speech yesterday following the release of the first American hostage. He talked about the future of Hamas and said the goal should be for Hamas to no longer control the Gaza Strip as opposed to Hamas to be eradicated, and he appears to choose his words carefully.
Right now we’ve heard the Prime Minister of Israel, this is a shared view across the Israeli political spectrum. We saw pre-rocket, political debate inside Israel. No division left to right in Israel. They will restart military operation soon. They want Hamas to lose control of Gaza and having no ability to launch terrorist attacks from Gaza. That is a multi-week, perhaps multi-month job. There is infrastructure in Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Iranian cells throughout the West Bank. We’ve seen what the Houthis are doing out of Yemen and Iran with the nuclear program still ahead.
We’ve learned in the last day American dollars are probably going to Hamas through the aid packages going to Palestinians. Not even that, they are going to prisoners that were released. Hamas does a pension for those that go to prison for creating jihad. That is a problem for the U.S. Further than that, Obama-era deal allows Hamas to have an office in Qatar. Americans say why are Hamas leaders in Qatar? We’re learning that might be a request or priority from the U.S. government from years gone by.
The Qataris have been long allies and sponsors of Hamas, they are part of the Muslim network. This was in 2012, during the Obama administration. The leaders were based in Damascus, Syria. Qatar opened their doors and Obama said we’ll let you host Qatar, they were believing if Qataris hosted Hamas, they would divide Hamas through Qatari sponsorship. That has not happened. Qatar put hundreds of millions into the terror infrastructure in addition to Hamas. After October 7, we have to ask why are the Qataris allowed to host Hamas leaders and sponsoring Hamas. The fact they are brokering this deal is absurd, they’re an ally and sponsor of Hamas. Either they are a terror organization or they are not, either Qatar is with us or they are not.