Seven weeks of war and a truce have demonstrated Israel is nowhere near its declared goal of eliminating Hamas.
That much was made clear by the Israeli army’s siege and raid of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, which failed to produce conclusive evidence that there was a Hamas-operated command centre there, as it had claimed. Instead, the operation against al-Shifa, which was anticlimactic at best, added to growing scepticism that Israel, with American backing, can uproot Hamas from Gaza.
It is time this reality is recognised in the halls of power in Washington. The Biden administration must abandon unrealistic Israeli rhetoric about “ending Hamas” and embrace a more attainable political solution that factors in the movement’s survival.
If Hamas’s long-term survival strains the imagination, the risks of simply avoiding the thought are even more unimaginable. Although this is clearly not a widely held sentiment in Israel right now, some Israelis, like former government advisor and Bar-Ilan University professor Menachem Klein, are coming around to the idea. Speaking to Al Jazeera after the first Israeli hostages were released, Klein conceded that it is “impossible to totally destroy Hamas by force”. The path forward, he argued, should include the group in renewed negotiations around a Palestinian state.
Given the horrific suffering endured by the people of Gaza, growing international and domestic pressure to end it, and the still-looming prospect of a broader regional conflict, the US can no longer insist that eliminating Hamas is the only path to ending this war.
I worry about the persecution of the Palestinian people and wonder how the conflict will end with Netenyahu in office.
@ISIDEWITH1yr1Y
How do you feel about the use of force as a means to solve political disputes, such as the effort to uproot Hamas from Gaza?
@9H8DXHJ1yr1Y
Is it worth killing the citizens in gaza?? But at the same time what other choice does Israel have.
@ISIDEWITH1yr1Y
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