Time to Take No for Their Answer: Hamas Will Never Voluntarily Disarm

We are hoping against hope that President Trump’s fulsome statement of support for Israel in any confrontation with Iran, following his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu this past Monday, will convince Hamas that the clock has finally run on their rope-a-dope sham to avoid voluntarily laying down their weapons.

In recent weeks, statements from their leaders have been making it painfully clear that they are duplicitously using the current truce period of relative calm as cover to rebuild their shattered military. In fact, Hamas has deftly turned that disarmament – which was supposed to be a prerequisite – into a negotiating point.

The Trump plan for Gaza was premised on the notion that Gaza must become a deradicalized, terror-free zone. Yet Hamas officials have recently declared disarmament a “red line,” falsely claiming that it was never part of the original negotiations.

So we seem to be close to reading the tea leaves and acknowledging that voluntarism is a non-starter with that crowd and there is now a strategic necessity for taking action against Hamas before the cost of doing so grows exponentially. Indeed, its principal patron, Iran, is now proclaiming a massive rebuilding effort, but that only acknowledges that it is currently in a historic moment of weakness.

Plainly, the significant June 1, 2025, Israeli “Operation Rising Lion” against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure has made the argument for taking military action now a virtual no-brainer. Following the June conflict, Iran emerged strategically paralyzed with its own military capacity – and that of Hamas and Hezbollah – at greater risk from Israeli military action than at any time in memory.

We wish it weren’t so, but all indications are that the time to act is now, and that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu get it.