Once, before dreaming of the presidency, Donald Trump confessed he was "drawn almost pathologically to complex deals, partly because they tend to be more interesting." This approach succeeded spectacularly and almost miraculously for him and for us in securing the release of hostages from Gaza, both living and deceased. Yet concerning Phase 2 of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, the notion of "the complex and interesting deal" has emerged, at least for now, as either a fiasco or an illusion. It displays excessive naivety or pretense, occasionally drifting into fantasy territory. We harbor no ingratitude toward the man without whom the hostages would almost certainly continue languishing in Hamas tunnels today. However, we cannot escape the obligation to confront reality honestly, and most importantly, to comprehend how it emerged.
Hamas – let's begin here – just like Hezbollah (another fantasy where the Americans stumbled) harbors no dreams of disarmament. The organization shows absolutely no interest, and its leaders discuss this candidly. Former National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat recently observed correctly that anyone planning to disarm wouldn't execute opponents and expose himself to blood revenge dangers while lacking defensive capabilities.
The situation extends far beyond this: Hamas is reconstructing command and control systems, having already redeployed roughly 7,500 operatives across the Gaza Strip territory remaining under its authority. The organization has resumed street patrols, salary payments to personnel, and tax collection from the population. Its members break arms and legs of anyone questioning their continued rule, restore tunnels, manufacture weapons anew, and settle accounts with armed clans that assisted Israel before the ceasefire. Hamas also commandeers humanitarian assistance again, replenishes food warehouses, and returns to profiteering from Gazans. The organization views itself as the start of a comeback, making every manipulation, deception, delay, and obstruction legitimate for advancing its revival vision.
They ignited flames and volunteered as firefighters
Just one month has elapsed since Trump announced at Sharm el-Sheikh an international peacekeeping force arriving in Gaza to rescue the situation and enforce ceasefire supervision. From that vision remain Turkey and Qatar, two Hamas patrons that stoked terror's flames for years before "volunteering" to extinguish them. They currently stand as the only nations refusing to condition their Gaza presence on Hamas's prior disarmament, and the reason is transparent. Both nations aim to preserve embers and maintain Hamas's survival. To restore it alongside Gaza. Israel appropriately imposes veto power here. Qatar, Turkey, and Hamas share similar worldviews regarding Israel, and American blindness toward these nations' Islamist extremism extends far beyond acceptable compromise at our expense.
Practically speaking, under banners of "comprehensive perspective" and "broad vision," while pursuing Saudi Arabia's and additional nations' entry into normalization and peace circles with Israel, Hamas receives American protection, granting immunity from substantial Israeli military operations, plus rehabilitation opportunities. The US, despite Hamas's repeated ceasefire violations, has blocked and continues blocking Israel from the disproportionate response warranted after October 7. It even obstructs plans to complete Hamas's elimination and eradication under conditions exponentially more favorable than those existing when living hostages remained in Gaza.
Consequently, the ceasefire's coordination and supervision apparatus becomes a practical shackles on Israel's capabilities. The proof: when the IDF Chief of Staff requested cabinet approval for complete operational freedom across both sides of Gaza's yellow line, matching realities in Jenin, Nablus, or Tulkarm, authorization was denied. Americans prevent Israel from such action because they're focused "on the larger picture." From their vantage point, Gaza presently, despite our experiences, represents merely one bone – not particularly large – lodged in the throat. So breathing proves somewhat difficult temporarily. Not catastrophic.
Gaza isn't a minor irritant – it's the central issue
Inadvertently, the US tumbles into precisely the same trap Israel fell into before October 7. Gaza isn't simply a minor throat obstruction; it constitutes the issue's core, because from there was launched October 7's "gospel" and Israel's destruction blueprint coordinated with Iran and its proxies. A senior military intelligence official, addressing this destruction vision recently, informed cabinet ministers that "the plan to annihilate Israel remains alive and operational, with October 7 continuing to inspire all Israel's regional enemies."
Before the Simchat Torah assault, Israel refused to let Gaza's facts and realities confuse its working assumption that rehabilitation schemes, funding, and economic enticements provided the key. Trump's America now operates in the same manner, presuming that money answers everything; that every problem features a deal awaiting signature once proper incentives materialize.
Trump struggles to accept that business principles don't govern everything, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict encompasses identity, religion, security, and national aspiration dimensions; that Gaza residents and Hamas are essentially identical. Generally, Gaza and most inhabitants have constituted our generation's Sodom for years, with its people predominantly evil and sinful individuals whose atrocities – preceding, during, and following the massacre – have received extensive public documentation here and elsewhere.
The hatred culture centered on Israel's destruction cannot be eliminated through financial means. Israel and its military possess genuine motivation and capability – now with no living hostages remaining in Gaza – to complete the mission there and strip Hamas of weaponry.
Trump's peace vision might potentially materialize only after Hamas's Gaza elimination, but current Trump policies actually facilitate the organization's persistence and re-entrenchment there. Israel's incomplete Gaza victory, its diminished triumph there, faces present danger, with Americans remaining unaware they're creating this peril.
