By now it should be crystal clear that Hamas doesn’t view the Trump peace plan as a framework for it to disarm and give up power in Gaza “in any form” as the deal calls for. To the contrary, Hamas plainly rather sees it as a means to avoid laying down its arms and perpetuate its role in Gaza and Palestinian affairs.
Thus, as The Wall Street Journal reported, as Israeli troops pulled back to facilitate the deal’s freeing the living hostages still held in Gaza, Hamas surged security forces in behind them – “a public assertion of authority intended to make clear the group remains the enclave’s governing power.”
Indeed, those forces immediately began cracking down on rival militias controlled by prominent Palestinian families engaging in firefights and an orgy of public executions in an effort – according to most analysts – to take advantage of the pause in the war to reestablish its hold on Gaza, upended by the war with Israel.
Hamas is pushing for a postwar governance role in negotiations with Arab mediators. And the BBC has reported that Hamas has called up some 7,000 fighters to assert its control as Hamas recruited during the war even as it took devastating losses.
So, we’re somewhat troubled by President Trump’s reported reaction to these developments which bespeak so clearly of Hamas intentions. That is, when asked about it he said the group “had understandably asked to be allowed to secure Gaza which was devastated…. They’ve been open about it and we gave them approval for a period of time.”
To be sure, he followed up the next day with the admonition, “They’re going to disarm…and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them.”
President Trump hardly needs lessons from us in the art of negotiations. But there are lots of moving parts for the U.S. in the Middle East such that it can’t hurt to draw attention to Hamas’s view of the cease fire as an umbrella for regrouping and any hint of daylight between Israel and the U.S. as an invitation to its exploitation.