The Palestinians, meanwhile, appear to have their own ideas about what should happen the day after the war in Gaza: they want to murder even more Jews and carry on the Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel. Rebuilding the Gaza Strip is not a top priority for many Palestinians. Their primary focus lies in providing support to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations that aim to destroy the sole homeland of the Jewish people.
Hamas says its plan is to "keep the flame of resistance burning.... the [resistance] will not end and will not be extinguished until the comprehensive liberation and the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Hamas refers to a variety of terrorist actions as "resistance." These include suicide bombings, stabbings, car-rammings, shootings, firing rockets, gang rapes, and beheadings. This is the only form of "resistance" Hamas has known and practiced since its founding 36 years ago. As far as Hamas is concerned...[a]ll Jews are "settlers" who need to be killed or expelled from their state.
As Hamas openly states in its charter... "There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
Hamas... is, not surprisingly, also opposed to any plan that seeks to remove it from power in the Gaza Strip. As long as Hamas's military capabilities are not totally eliminated, neither the Palestinian Authority nor the Arab countries will take over administration of the Gaza Strip.
The only plan Hamas (and many Palestinians) believes in is one that calls on all Muslims to undertake Jihad against Israel. For this reason, the Biden administration is misguided in thinking that Hamas, which enjoys broad support among the Palestinians, would approve of any plan for the day after in the Gaza Strip that does not view terrorism as the only means of eradicating Israel and ethnically cleansing the Jewish people.
The [Palestinian Center For Policy and Survey Research] poll also found that satisfaction with Hamas's performance has increased to 75%.
Any strategy the Biden administration proposes for the day after the war in the Gaza Strip is bound to fail.... Any legitimate discussion about what the day after looks like in the Gaza Strip must address the radical and Islamist elements in Palestinian society.
"The possibility of defeating Israel is very real...and the possibility of liberating Palestine is very great... Any other option will certainly be rejected, especially if it is accompanied by any non-Palestinian security presence. The Palestinians will consider it a new form of occupation, regardless of the identity of these forces." — Bassam Naim, senior Hamas official, to Al-Jazeera.
"Israel is a country that has no place on our land.... We must remove it because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation.... We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth...." – Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas official, Lebanese TV channel LBC, October 24, 2023.
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Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
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