In a recent Senate conformation hearing Pete Hegseth, the potential new Secretary of Defense in the Trump Administration, was asked by Sen. Tom Cotton, “I support Israel’s war in Gaza. I assume that you and President Trump support that war as well, don’t you?”

Hegseth answered, “Senator, I do. I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas.”

But that is not what happened in Gaza with the recently signed hostage release/ceasefire/end of war deal recently signed between Israel and Hamas.

In effect, it was an Israeli surrender to Hamas.

At a time when Israeli soldiers just fought and died in northern Gaza, the deal tells those dead soldiers, and their surviving comrades, “Sorry guys, you died and fought in vain. We are now ordering you to retreat, and hand over the territory to Hamas.”

Who do you see as the victor here?

The argument that no one won, and no one lost, is a fallacy.

Hamas won. Israel lost.

Just watch the people of Gaza – the ones you were told were innocent bystanders, not at all connected with Hamas – take to the streets to celebrate their Hamas heroes in their great Hamas victory over those nasty Jews.

Not only has the powers who negotiated this deal and pressured Israel to accept it, but they added an extra layer of salt to rub into Israeli wounds by demanding that Israel must increase the number of trucks entering Gaza in order to give Hamas even more food to sell to its people and make even more money for the future supplies of weapons and military equipment to replace that stocks destroyed by Israel.

In the meantime, Hamas can continue to recruit another 15-20,000 new fighters into their ranks for the next round of warfare against their Zionist enemy.

If you don’t think that Hamas exists in the hearts and minds of every Palestinian, you have been living in a progressive la-la land. And I am not only talking about those Palestinians living in Gaza. This applies to the majority of Arabs living under the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Add to that mix the millions of Middle East migrants now occupying most Western capitals and cities.

They all will be celebrating a Hamas victory over the Jews.

This was expressed in stark terms by Likud member, Amit Halevi, in a recent video appeal.

“President Trump. You said that if the hostages don’t return there will be hell to pay. We, the citizens of Israel, thought that the hell will be unleashed on Gaza, on the Nazi enemy that we face. But, in this deal, the hell unleashed is on the citizens of Israel. On those that will die by the blood-filled hands of the terrorists that will be released. On those that will be kidnapped by the terrorists that now rebuilds their strength. On those that will die from the rockets that once again will rain down on Israeli civilians. There will also be a tragic victory for America’s enemies. You say you want to make America great again. And you do, but this is not the way. “

As political commentator, Yishai Fleicher, said, “This deal is bad policy. It has enabled the bad guys to have a victory. They will return only some of our hostages, but they will have a victory and remain in power. Our army will leave the Gaza Strip and vacate the Philadelphi Corridor which his how arms flowed into Gaza from the Egyptian Sinai.”

The Palestinians have adopted a winning strategy through the ages of hostage taking.

Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, was one such example. This one soldier was released for over a thousand Palestinian terrorists, including Yahiya Sinwar.

This deal, together with the mass capture of vulnerable Israelis on 7/10, has sealed the fate of future Israelis, particularly girls and children, easier and more valuable prey than IDF soldiers, by a Palestinian enemy seeking additional emotional bargaining power to force Israel into further retreats.

And so, to this recent bad deal.

History has proven to us that lob-sided deals always endanger Israel. Yet here we go again.

This war should have ended in the annihilation of Hamas, no matter how long it takes to degrade them. Instead, because of the bad construct of this hostage-end of war deal we now see Hamas being celebrated as victors.

One inadvertent conclusion of this stupid non-solution is that it will put a nail in the bad idea of imposing the Palestinian Authority onto Gaza in place of Hamas.

Myopic Western policy dreamers are so out of touch with the harsh realities of the Middle East, they have totally misread the room.

There is no way that Gazans, who have begun celebrating Hamas as their heroes, will replace them with the corrupt authoritarian control of Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies.

And so, by denying Israel the support to finish the job in Gaza, by, understandably, putting full emphasis on the return of our hostages, the decision makers have constructed a Gazan maze in which Israel will be forced to navigate for the next decade or more.

Unless, of course, Hamas acts according to its bad character and reneges on its obligations in the upcoming stages of the deal.

In that case, we can go back to Hegseth’s solution for the Hamas problem.

This will enable Israel to finish the job in Gaza, hopefully with the backing of the international community, led by the Trump Administration, and put in place a better, more regional, solution for Gaza that does not depend on an eradicated Hamas nor an incompetent and corrupt PA.

"That would be my solution of Gaza becoming an Abraham Accord protectorate, but that is an article for another day..."

***

Source: Barry Shaw, Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.