For full article go to https://www.jns.org/why-is-hamas-so-confident-that-its-winning/
Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’s “political wing,” in his luxurious
living quarters in Doha, Qatar, thinks the war has gone just fine. He thinks that Hamas is “winning the war” and is
confident that the genocidal Islamist organization will, despite the battering
it has received from the Israel Defense Forces, play a “decisive” role in Gaza
in the future.
It takes an extraordinary amount of chutzpah to sit in a comfortable
place of exile where you are protected by Qatar—an ally of Iran and Hamas—while
the Gulf State also pretends to be friendly with the United States. It’s odd
for a “political” leader to be so blithe about a conflict that has, despite the
inflated statistics of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip produced by Hamas,
certainly inflicted tremendous harm on his own people. By hiding from the IDF
in a warren of tunnels the size of the New York subway system underneath
civilian homes, they set in motion a confrontation that guaranteed that much of
the Strip would be destroyed. And Hamas itself has been severely hurt.
Reportedly, 20,000 operatives have been killed, and all of its organized
military formations are no longer combat-effective. The same is true of its
ability to send long-range missiles into Israel.
Survival equals a Hamas victory
By any normal definition of victory or defeat, in the aftermath of its
orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnappings and wanton destruction in
Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas hasn’t been beaten.
While most of us have understandably focused on the fighting in Gaza as
well as the way Hezbollah terrorists have been able to essentially de-populate
a portion of northern Israel with its indiscriminate fire on civilians, one of
the key fronts in this war is not in the Middle East. It’s in the United
States.
Hamas have been doing nothing but playing for time. And they expected
that the time they needed to outlast the Israeli offensive would be provided to
them by Israel’s closest ally.
Combined with the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism made obvious by the
pro-Hamas encampments at elite universities, it gave Hamas every reason not to
negotiate seriously for a hostage release deal. Hamas viewed all of this as
encouragement for its plan to simply hunker down in its remaining tunnel
strongholds, and hold out until U.S. and international pressure—heightened by
the anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media—forced Israel to stand down and
allow the Islamists to emerge as the victor in the war.
Demoralizing the Israelis
While Israelis have every right to protest against their government even
in wartime, Hamas also views the unrest inside the Jewish state as an asset.
The families of the remaining hostages and Netanyahu’s political opposition now
seek to pressure him to give up the war and sign a ceasefire agreement, even if
it means essentially handing Gaza back to Hamas and ensuring a repeat of the
horrors of Oct. 7. I understand why some feel that way for a number of
different reasons, but the fact remains that Hamas is counting on that
sentiment.
But above all, Hamas views American pressure on Israel as its ace in the
hole.
The reality of Palestinian politics
If left to carry out its tasks without foreign interference, the IDF will
eventually eliminate Hamas, though that task will not be accomplished easily or
quickly. It can certainly prevent it from returning to power in Gaza, thus
ensuring that its reign of terror over Israel as well as Palestinians is over. The
terrorist group are counting on feckless American politicians, ideologically
motivated leftist demonstrators and political activists, a media that is always
prepared to demonize Israeli efforts at self-defense, as well as war-weariness
and anguish about the hostages inside Israel to guarantee their survival. We
may hope that they are wrong about that, but it’s easy to understand why the
terrorist leader is confident that he can outlast the Israelis … with American
help.
No comments:
Post a Comment