Earlier this month, international aid began flowing into the Gaza Strip. More than a billion dollars have been pledged. Qatar and Egypt, the Biden administration and the United Nations are all keen to move as quickly as possible to rebuild the buildings that were destroyed during Hamas’ last missile offensive against Israel in May.
Over a 10-day period in May, Hamas shot approximately 4,500 missiles, rockets and mortars at Israel, targeting its population centers from the Gaza border to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In response, Israel targeted Gaza’s missile stores, launch sites, communications hubs and subterranean military infrastructure.
According to Hamas, Israel Defense Forces bombings caused a bit less than half a billion dollars in damage. So if the pledges for assistance are honored, Hamas will not only cover its losses—it will be rewarded for its aggression.
In the meantime, anti-Israel congressional Democrats nearly capsized approval of supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense batteries. Were it not for the Iron Dome system, which intercepted most of Hamas’ projectiles before they reached their targets, Israel would have sustained massive loss in life and property. The 10-day campaign would have rapidly escalated into a full-blown land war.
There might be an argument to be made for rewarding Hamas for its wanton aggression against Israel if there were any reason to believe that Hamas might consider changing its ways—if Hamas announced that it planned to abandon its war against the Jewish state and seek peace instead. But the opposite is the case. Hamas remains dead-set on its goal of not only annihilating Israel, but of carrying out a genocide of the bulk of Israel’s 6.5 million Jews and then subjugating any survivors. Moreover, the outcome of Hamas’ aggression against Israel last spring has convinced the terror regime that such a goal is within plausible reach.
This conviction was the rationale for a triumphant conference that the Hamas regime sponsored in Gaza on September 30. The conference, held in conjunction with the Palestinian NGO Promise of the Hereafter Institute, was titled, “Promise of the Hereafter: Post-Liberation Palestine.” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar chaired the proceedings. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated the concluding statement. The MEMRI report is worth reading in full, but a few points stand out.
The purpose of the conference was to determine how to administer “Palestine” after Israel is destroyed and disappears. Participants agreed that upon Israel’s destruction, non-Muslims in “Palestine” will be ruled by the Pact of Umar. The Pact of Umar was concluded around 637, with the fall of Byzantine-held Jerusalem to Muslim conquerors. The Pact sets out the conditions under which non-Muslims are permitted to live under Islamist rule.
The Pact of Umar explains how non-Muslims, referred to as “dhimmis,” are to live in a perpetual state of powerlessness and subservience to their Islamic rulers. It places severe constraints on their freedom of worship and imposes a continuous ransom for the lives of non-Muslim men, called the “jizya” tax. Under the Pact, Islamist rulers spare the lives of non-Muslims who accept their dhimmi status, but are free to kill non-Muslims who refuse to accept the constraints.
Last month’s Hamas conference determined that Jews who survive Israel’s destruction must be placed in three separate groups. The first group includes the Jewish “fighters.” They must be killed. The second group includes the “peaceful Jews” who surrender. They can either be integrated into Palestine, as dhimmis, or “be given time to leave.”
The final group is comprised of “educated Jews and experts in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology and civilian and military industry.” To prevent a brain-drain with the destruction of the Jewish state, Hamas conference participants determined that these Jews “should be retained for some time and should not be allowed to leave.”
Another key preoccupation of the Hamas conference participants was getting their hands on Palestinians who worked with Israel.
“The minute ‘Israel’ collapses,” the final report determined, “the interim government’s security apparatuses must put their hands on the data regarding the agents of the occupation of Palestine in the region and throughout the world, and discover the names of the recruiters, Jewish and non-Jewish, in the country and abroad. Using this information, we can purge Palestine and the Arab and Islamic homeland of the hypocrite scum that spread corruption in the land.”
The conference was called last month because Hamas and its supporters feel that “victory is nigh.” Israel’s days are numbered, Hamas believes, and now is the time to prepare.
Where did Hamas get the idea that its moment of victory against the Jews is at hand? Why did Hamas decide that now is the time to figure out how to engage the international community; what to do with Israel’s international treaty obligations as a “Palestine” successor state; and what currency will replace the Israeli shekel?
The answer is fairly clear. Hamas’ operation against Israel in May was unlike any of its many predecessors. For the first time since 1947, many Israeli-Arabs were full, open participants in a Palestinian military assault on the Jewish state. Hamas was able to extend its reach to within Israel without sending invading forces across the physical border.
While Hamas’ terror forces in Gaza attacked Israel with an average of 450 missiles a day for 10 days, Israeli-Arab mobs invariably rioted countrywide. They burned and looted Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in mixed Jewish-Arab cities. They lynched Jewish neighbors and passersby. And they tied their fortunes and fates to those of Hamas.
Hamas began its offensive as the Netanyahu government was on its way out of power. Now, Israel is led by a government dominated by the Left, and which rules with a bare one-seat parliamentary majority. Israel’s Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islamist party Ra’am is a member of the governing coalition. With its meager four-seat Knesset faction, Ra’am can bring down the government whenever it wishes. Ra’am’s lawmakers have repeatedly pledged to bolt—and thereby collapse—the government if Prime Minister Naftali Bennett launches a campaign against Hamas.
Whereas in the past, Congress has been loath to fund Hamas-ruled Gaza, today it is support for Israel that has become controversial. With a growing anti-Israel faction in the Democratic congressional caucus, support for Israel has grown politically costly for many members of the Democratic majority on the Hill. Support for Hamas, on the other hand, is becoming a cost-free vote for many Democrats.
Last week, Israel’s dovish foreign minister, Yair Lapid, visited Washington. Amidst his meetings with top Biden administration officials, reports arose of a dispute between the sides over funding for Hamas. Lapid, like the Biden administration, supports transferring astronomical amounts of money to Hamas-controlled Gaza to build its economy. Lapid even supports transferring dual-use construction materials that Hamas can easily use to quickly restore and expand its missile arsenals and other offensive weapons systems.
But according to the reports, Lapid wishes to delay the transfer of the funds and the construction materials until after a deal is reached in which Hamas releases its two Israeli hostages and returns the bodily remains of two Israeli soldiers it has been holding since its last full-scale war against Israel, in 2014. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly rejected Lapid’s postion and demanded the immediate transfer of funds and materiel to Gaza, with no strings or conditions attached.
Lapid’s dispute with the administration is utterly irrelevant and deeply counterproductive in light of Hamas’ offensive strategy, its genocidal plans and its triumphant posture. It is a testament to the delusion at the heart of the pro-Palestinian camp, as well as the grave danger such delusion represents to the security and survival of the State of Israel, that these discussions are even taking place.