Hamas won; everyone lost — whatever the decision may be

After U.S. President Trump’s meeting with Muslim countries, the optimism that emerged over Gaza has now been shattered by the agreement announced after his meeting with the genocidal killer Netanyahu, and has been replaced by great disappointment. It appears that the one who meets with Trump last ends up having more of a chance to influence him. Trump’s focusing on stopping the war at any cost and in any way seems to make it possible for him to give every kind of concession in return. Is the matter really this simple? The plan he presented as if he had extracted a huge concession from Netanyahu and was racing toward peace actually provides almost every condition Netanyahu has been searching for in vain for two years.Hamas will lay down its weapons and hand over all the hostages it holds within 48 hours, but Israel will not withdraw from Gaza immediately, only gradually. No guarantee, no roadmap at all has been given about how and why Israel, having disarmed Hamas and rescued all the hostages, will withdraw from Gaza. Already, after having obtained everything it wanted throughout the war, there is no guarantee in anyone’s hand about how and why it will withdraw.

What will Hamas or Gaza end up with at the end of the agreement? Nothing. So why should Hamas accept an agreement text from which it will gain nothing? Because if it does not accept, it will be labeled a stubborn spoiler and lose all the legitimacy, sympathy and moral high ground it has built up in world public opinion until now.

This is actually the summary of the plan. And this is a text of agreement very different from what was discussed under the leadership of President Erdoğan with Trump at the summit held in New York with the leaders of Arab-Islamic countries. This is exactly Netanyahu’s plan from the start, and it appears that Netanyahu has sold this text to Trump as a successful “compromise” in the direction of peace and a solution. According to the agreement reached between Netanyahu and Trump:

– Unless Hamas completely surrenders its weapons, Israel will not withdraw and the war will not end completely.

– During the transition period in Gaza there will be no Palestinian Authority. A technocratic committee chosen by the White House to govern Gaza independently of Palestinians will be headed by Tony Blair. This will mean a double occupation of Gaza.

– All detainees will be handed over within 48 hours from the entry into force of the agreement.

– Crossings will be opened for those wishing to leave Gaza (voluntary migration).

– Hamas leadership will be voluntarily removed from Gaza, and those who wish to stay in Gaza will be forced to surrender.

– If Hamas rejects the terms, it will face a real dilemma (being deported from Qatar at Trump’s request), and its leaders will be assassinated and pursued abroad.

– To demolish what is left of Gaza City and turn it into a model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun (empty, completely destroyed and under Israeli control).

– Hamas’s rejection of the offer will give Netanyahu an open green light in international, Arab and American public opinion to continue the war and will give Israel enough time to occupy the rest of the Gaza Strip.

– Hamas will be held solely responsible for the bloodshed and massacres in Gaza because it rejected the offer.

Of course, there are very painful and tragic precedents in the West and Israel’s history of disarming civilians. There is the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, when nearly 9,000 Muslim men in Bosnia and Herzegovina were disarmed and then personally handed over to the Serbs by UN officials and sent to their deaths.

There is also the Sabra and Shatila massacre that occurred after the Palestinian resistance handed over its weapons in 1982.

Moreover, today there is the reality of Netanyahu — a war criminal, a criminal against humanity, a genocider — who has not kept any of the promises he has made lately. The only guarantee of the plan is his word, yet if one were to name the one person in the world who cannot be trusted right now, his name would come first.

Indeed, even before leaving the U.S., he openly said that he would not stick to this agreement he announced with Trump: “Instead of being isolated because of Hamas, we reversed the situation and isolated Hamas. The entire world, including the Arab and Islamic world, accepted the plan we developed together with Trump. According to the plan, while maintaining a military presence in most parts of the Gaza Strip, we will release all Israeli detainees. We did not accept a Palestinian state and it is not included in this plan. We stated that we are against the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

And in this process, is Tony Blair to be trusted? He is one of the main perpetrators of deceiving the entire world public with the lie of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, leading to the deaths of at least one million Iraqis and dragging the whole region into chaos. For the past 15 years, Tony Blair has been providing consultancy services to the dictators of the region to strangle the most promising developments the region has experienced under what was called the Arab Spring. What could Tony Blair possibly bring to the people of Gaza?

The agreement Trump announced by following Netanyahu is actually a declaration of blackmail by Israel against Hamas by taking the people of Gaza hostage. The only thing that could persuade Hamas to accept this agreement is to stop the death raining down on its own people, to keep its people who are bleeding to death from starvation alive.

Otherwise, for them this agreement is worse than death. Until now they have given epic lessons to all humanity about their outlook on life. They have shown every day, every hour, in a way that shames all humanity, that their lives will not be a bargaining chip for dishonorable surrender.

But now and for quite some time the occupying forces have been threatening them with the lives of Gaza’s civilian population.

This same threat has been repeated in Trump’s statements. If Hamas does not surrender, that is, does not hand over its weapons and hostages, it will itself have caused a more comprehensive genocide to be applied against the people of Gaza. Just look at this arrogant and haughty language. To hold Hamas responsible, not Israel the perpetrator, for the genocide they have openly threatened to carry out.

By accepting and congratulating this agreement text — which is far removed from the text they had agreed upon — Arab countries have shown that they have consented to it. It was no secret anyway that some countries were secretly expecting Israel to finish off Hamas.

Still, in this grip it will be Hamas’s own decision what it prefers. We are witnessing by whom and in what kind of dead end it has been left. We have also witnessed that they have fought the noblest struggle so far for Muslim honor, dignity and freedom, and we respect to the end whatever decision they make from now on.

They had already long ago declared that they had withdrawn from Gaza’s administration. Whatever their decision is, whoever governs Gaza, we also know that it will not be possible to disarm and destroy Hamas. Because Hamas is Gaza itself, it is Palestine itself.

Hamas has won, the whole world has lost. Whatever its decision is.