If past is prologue, Israel is entering a period as dangerous, if not more so, than actual wartime. We are not strangers to the phenomenon of winning wars, losing the subsequent negotiations, and winding up in a much worse strategic position than when the hostilities ended. We have withdrawn from Gaza five times since 1948. The boundaries at the conclusion of the Six Day War have mostly disappeared into the sands of history.
The Sinai Peninsula has been surrendered several times, the last in return for its demilitarization. That buffer zone is also gone, as the Egyptian Army has returned in force to the Sinai. The great Arab and Western summit several weeks ago at Sharm el Sheikh recalled for me that Ron Eliran song, after the Six Day War, in which we purported to return “to Sharm el Sheikh a second time but it is in our hearts always.” Maybe in our hearts - but not the world’s maps or consciousness. Few remember that Israel captured Sharm el Sheikh twice and then forfeited it.
It should not be lost on anyone that we just fought a war on multiple fronts and the results were decisive on all fronts - except the one which launched the war, Gaza. We achieved great strategic advances in Iran, whose nuclear program was arrested and for the moment neutralized; in Syria, where Assad is gone, Israel commands the Golan, Hermon, and points beyond; Yemen has been (at least) temporarily defanged; and in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been greatly weakened and might even be compelled by the Lebanese government to submit to its authority. Iran is being held accountable for all its proxies, itself a deterrent.
For sure, much credit should be given to PM Netanyahu for orchestrating these successes in a masterful way and to our military that realized such triumphs.
Of course, waging war in those territories was not complicated by the presence of Israeli hostages cruelly held and brutally mistreated, as it was in Gaza. And undoubtedly Hamas has also been weakened grievously but as a suicidal death cult nurtured in a culture where Jews are hated and Israel must be destroyed, it will not be difficult for them to reconstitute. That has already begun.
The diplomatic dangers we are facing are a consequence of fundamental errors that the American negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are making. I believe they mean well, and like President Trump, truly desire the peace and prosperity of Israel and the region. And the deal they engineered was nothing short of miraculous, a hidden miracle that reflects Shlomo’s words in Mishlei (21:1): “Like the water courses (in different directions), so is the king’s heart in G-d’s hand; He turns it whenever He desires.”
It was an amazing feat to induce Hamas to free our hostages at one time, upfront, thus relinquishing the diabolical leverage they had over us. That was a stunning accomplishment for which the Americans and our government (Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, and others) deserve praise, notwithstanding the release of terrorist murderers that will plague us for years to come. And that the Arabs and Turkey pressured Hamas can surely be traced to our attack on Doha that suggested to Qatar that its territory is not sacrosanct as a haven for terrorists.
But Witkoff and Kushner neglect two points.
First, they do not seem to consider the reality of Hamas, as Hamas itself advertises, proclaims, and uses to recruit new terrorists.
It helps to read the Hamas charter:
“Palestine is the land of the Arab Palestinian people, from it they originate, to it they adhere and belong… Palestine is a land whose status has been elevated by Islam… Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project that was founded on a false promise (the Balfour Declaration), on recognition of a usurping entity and on imposing a fait accompli by force… Palestine is an Arab Islamic land. It is a blessed sacred land that has a special place in the heart of every Arab and every Muslim…
"Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea… Resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine will remain a legitimate right, a duty and an honour for all the sons and daughters of our people and our Ummah.”
These are the words - never revoked or modified - of Hamas, a genocidal death cult that wants to destroy us. What part of this Jew-hating screed signals to the American negotiators that Hamas is a worthy interlocutor, deserving of a seat at the table of civilized nations? It is hard to detect any wiggle room in their call to genocide. In truth, the naiveté about Palestinian intentions has been a staple of American and Western diplomacy since the Palestinian Arabs were invented in the late 1960’s.
Some people found it very humane that Steve Witkoff, a bereaved father himself, offered condolences to the Hamas terrorist leader Khalil al-Hayya, whose son was killed in the Israeli attack on Doha, Qatar. I found it bizarre.
Witkoff’s son died, sadly, of a drug overdose. Khalil al-Hayya’s son died because he was present in the headquarters of a genocidal death cult that yearns for the death of Jews (and Americans, but that is another matter).
The difference between the two young men could not be starker. One was innocent and troubled; one was a terrorist or at least an associate of terrorists. Khalil al-Hayya himself called the massacre of Jews on October 7 “a great act,” something that should greatly curb any sympathy we have towards this monster.
The relentless and eternal hatred of Hamas - and of the Palestinian Authority - for Israel and Jews remains. We cannot wish it away. These are not “stupid Middle Eastern word games,” as Mr. Kushner called the long-lasting and frivolous focus of decades of Western diplomats. This is the sad reality. Nothing has happened that controverts that reality, and this reality has been ignored for time immemorial because - as once explained to me by a senior US negotiator - there could never be no negotiations if we accepted that as a possibility. But wishing something away does not make it go away.
Thus, the absurdity of PM Netanyahu “apologizing” to Qatar for Israel’s attack on the Hamas headquarters, which of course I understand and accept on a political level (it’s just words, and it did help free the hostages from captivity).
But was Qatar asked to apologize for hosting on its soil a genocidal death cult or subsidizing it with billions of dollars used to build its subterranean terror infrastructure? Of course not.
Was Hamas asked to apologize for its ruthless assault on October 7 - its murdering, raping, pillaging, and kidnapping? Of course not; see their charter above, it is their “legitimate right.”
Indeed, of all the billions the world plans to “invest” in the rebuilding of Gaza, should not the first allocation of that money be given to us to rebuild the Jewish communities around Gaza? After all, why are the aggressors more entitled to that money than the victims?
This is because of the second, almost inevitable, error made by the negotiators.
They assume Qatar’s good faith and do not see them for what they are: fomenters, aiders, and abettors of terror. Witkoff and Kushner have this notion that Arabs say one thing in public and something else in private (that part is true) and assume that what they say in private is the truth and what they say in public is to quell the Arab street. They are seemingly oblivious to the possibility that what they (the Americans) are being told in private are lies for their consumption, while what the people are inculcated, and what their media proffer, are their true feelings. Children across the Arab world - and even in Palestinian Arab schools in Jerusalem, certainly in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - are still being taught that Jews are evil and Israel is illegitimate.
It is quite possible that these negotiators are being played and I hope that they consider that possibility. Some would argue that they might be blinded by lucre, their investments and plans for more, in these countries, but I think it is more likely that they see Qatar and Egypt (worse, Turkey) as worthy negotiators and countries instrumental in Gaza’s future because they have no choice but to believe that.
Just like Oslo was founded on willful delusions accepted by the world and thrust on the Israeli people, and just like the Gaza expulsion was sold to the Israel public by the promise of no more wars and deaths in Gaza, we are being sold this dream of imminent peace by assuming the good will of the funders, advocates, and brethren of the genocidal death cult.
We fall for this latest delusion at our peril.
Part of the mirage is that peace is moments away, while it is likelier we will find ourselves again in a war of attrition, in which our soldiers and civilians occasionally are attacked and die, and we are urged to show restraint to maintain the “cease fire.” After the Six Day War, from 1968-1970, Israel lost roughly 900 soldiers in that War of Attrition, about as many as died in the Six Day War itself.
We must be alert not to fall into this trap again and not pretend that only we have to “cease” while the enemy can still “fire.” And that fire can take the form of attacks on our soldiers, rockets sent our way, bombs placed in our restaurants, shootings at bus stops, and stabbings on our streets - all of which we will be cajoled into downplaying to protect the “cease fire.”
Additionally, we should be wary of another old tactic employed by our enemy and embraced by the West: attributing terror against Israel to “rogue groups” (like Trump just termed the Hamas attack that killed two soldiers from Modiin). This recalls similar excuses from decades past when to protect the PLO or Hezbollah, all terrorist acts were routinely attributed to a “previously unknown group,” which actually was the same old group, and occasionally to “lone wolves.” This verbal legerdemain fooled those who desperately wanted to be fooled. (I suppose we should then also attribute our counterattacks to “rogue forces” not under the control of our government, but I suspect we will not be believed).
We should also be concerned about safeguarding the “process,” diplomatic double talk for accepting our losses, paying a steep price, and doing nothing that will endanger the continuation of talks. There are certain staples in the world of illusion. Words matter more than deeds. Declarations of peace matter more than peace itself.
President Trump repeatedly threatens to eradicate Hamas, just as Israel is assured that only Arab forces of which we approve will enter Gaza, but will all that be thrust aside to keep the process going?
There will be tremendous pressure on Israel to compromise on the disarming of Hamas, in whole or in part, and on the complete banishment of Hamas from Gaza; to overlook if all the bodies of our fallen and murdered held in Gaza are not returned; to pretend that violations of the cease fire do not mean there is no cease fire; and to allow nefarious forces such as Qatar and Turkey to gain a foothold in Gaza - Qatar, the longtime host of Hamas, and Turkey, from whose consulate in Jerusalem (which should be closed forthwith) it orchestrates anti-Israel activity through its organs TIKA, KUTAD, Younes Amra, and others.
The Turks are especially dangerous, and especially in Jerusalem, where the Hamas leadership previously incarcerated has now been released and resumed its previous support of terror.
The genius of the agreement was that, if executed, it fulfills all of Israel’s war aims. The weakness is that those objectives might be conceded under pressure to maintain the illusion that peace has broken out.
Israel must insist that the disarming of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza take place before any money enters Gaza, that voluntary emigration be placed on the table as a viable option that the international community will facilitate, and that a Palestinian state is a nonstarter.
Witkoff and Kushner believe that all residents of the Middle East want peace with Israel and prosperity for all. I wish it were so. Absent concrete evidence - a good start would a complete halt to funding terror and relocation of all Gazans who do want a better life - we should not believe that.
Once again, the world will expect Israel to endanger itself to accommodate our enemy. The pressure will be intense. Let us ensure that does not happen.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky is a rabbi and attorney, Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo), and Israel Region representative of the Coalition for Jewish Values.