A ceasefire with Hamas is nonsense

Since when did terrorism enter the lexicon of valid political or diplomatic debate? Since when did intellectual up become intellectual down, and the real targets of intended genocide, Israel and the Jewish people, become the accused perpetrators of genocide?

In a recent interview with the foreign media, a Hamas terrorist was asked why most of its missiles are falling in open areas and are predominately inaccurate. In response, he allegedly replied: “Our missiles are accurate, but the God of the Jews moves them … .” The interviewer then asked him why the group keeps shooting at Israel. The terrorist replied: “We are waiting for the God of the Jews to get angry with them and stop helping them.”

Previous ceasefires with Hamas during the last 17 years have resulted in ever-increasing hostility and a constant cascading of rockets on civilians in southern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces’ responsive, retaliatory attacks on so-called strategic targets have proved futile since they were rebuilt and restocked soon after with even more sophisticated weapons.

We cannot count on Israel’s peace-treaty partner, Egypt, which allowed and encouraged the resupply of Iranian weapons to Hamas through the tunnels beneath the Rafah border crossing, while above the ground, food, medicine, building materials, etc., flowed into the Gaza Strip for the civilian population.

We now know that unfortunately, these humanitarian supplies were rarely if ever used for the benefit of the general population but were commandeered by Hamas and sold to the citizens at tremendous profits for the terrorist organization, with the Egyptian government and black marketeers reaping multimillion-dollar fees for their participation over all these years.

Since the onset of the Iron Swords War following the barbaric attack on Oct. 7 by thousands of Hamas terrorists and the civilian looters who participated in their crimes, it has been reported that Hamas has earned more than $500 million from the humanitarian aid pouring into Gaza from the Rafah and several Israeli crossings.

If this aid had been properly distributed by the United Nations and other aid agencies operating in Gaza, there would be no semblance of food or medical insecurity which the world press is wringing its hands over, and, of course, blaming Israel.

Israel has sought from the very beginning to live in peace with its Arab neighbors whether they be Sunni, Shi’ite or any of the hundreds of Arab tribes and clans that comprise the Arab and Persian peoples.

Not surprisingly, Jews and Judaism are accused by Islamists of being infidels, but be assured Christians and Christianity follow closely behind, as well as all the other non-Islamic cultures and religions that make up the bulk of humanity.

Radical Islam is antisemitic, antidemocratic, racist, misogynistic and discriminatory. It permits no compromise. Its focus is on the violent imposition of Islam on the entire world.

This is why diplomacy has not been effective in dealing with or resolving these conflicts in the Middle East. Modern diplomacy is simply not equipped to negotiate with the sixth- and seventh-century dogma that permeates Islamic theology; it is this theology that guides the behavior of many Muslim states and nonstate terrorists that leaves no room for compromise.

The United States and its Western allies have not fully grasped this fact. There is hope that some nations and peoples in the Arab and Muslim world are tempering their Islamic beliefs and reinterpreting religious beliefs in light of contemporary realities. Until that becomes the norm, this century could become the bloodiest in human history—and ceasefire and appeasement diplomacy will remain nonsensical policies for the free world.