Picking 55-year-old hardliner Yahwa Sinwar to run the Gaza Strip, Hamas showed it’s gearing up for another war with Israel. Committed to his last breath to destroy Israel, Sinwar’s now controls not only of Gaza but also West Bank-based 81-year-old rule Mahmoud Abbas. With former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry pushing Israel for land-for-peace concessions, it’s now 100% that Palestinians seek armed conflict with Israel. While no one knows yet when Sinwar will give the green light to Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, it only a matter of time now with Siwar controlling Hamas. Obama and Kerry played into the U.N.’s anti-Israel bias that Israel must give back all the spoils of the 1967 Six Day War, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Golan Heights. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula in 1979 and Gaza in 2005.
When 67-year-old Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu visits President Donald Trump at the White House Wednesday, Feb. 15, Sinwar’s appointment will be top of the list. Jailed in Israel for 20 years for terrorist acts, Sinwar’s as militant as quadraplegic Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, fouding Hamas in 1987 for one purpose: Destroying Israel. Sinwar, like Hamas’s 60-year-old leader in exile Khaled Meshaal. Meshaal, seek to avenge Israel’s March 22,2004 assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin. When Yassin’s successor Adel Aziz al-Rantizi threatened revenge on Israel, he too was targeted with a hellfire missile April 17, 2004, throwing Hamas leadership into chaos. Apointing Sinwar, a former twenty-year Israeli prisoner, promises more revenge, until the vicious cycle repeats itself. Obama and Kerry never accepted how Hamas controls the PLO.
Palestinian officials continuously blame Netanyahu for building settlements on what they think will become an independent Palestinian State in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Selling the U.S. and European Union on Israel settlements preventing a peace, Palestinians haven’t labeled the real obstacle to peace. Controlled by Hamas, Abbas can’t negotiate any peace deal without Hamas’s approval. Hamas wants nothing less than Israel’s original 1948 British Mandate of Palestine. Hamas isn’t interested in only spoils of the 1967 War. They want all of Israel and won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the Jewish State. With that kind of peace partner, it’s no wonder Netanyahu continues building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. When Netanyahu visits Feb. 15, Trump will get fully briefed on Israel’s realistic prospects for peace.
Replacing Haniyeh, whose Al-Qassam brigades fired thousands of missiles at Israel during the last Hamas-Israeli War Jul 8, 2014 to Aug. 26, 2014. When the dust settled, Israel inflicted more than $5 billion in property damage on the already dilapidated Gaza Strip. Haniyeh ran out of cash, couldn’t pay Gaza’s civil servants and needed a war to get rebuilding pledges from wealthy Arab states, like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. All indications point to Gaza once again running out of cash, prompting calls for another war. When Gaza citizens are polled about going to war with Israel, overwhelming numbers favor armed conflict, no matter how devastating the losses to Gaza. Hamas didn’t care how many residents lost their homes, hospitals and schools. Hamas leadership kept telling Gaza residents they were close to destroying Israel, returning Palestinians the Promised Land.
Since Hamas took the Gaza Strip by force June 14, 2007, Palestinians have been divided by between the West Bank and Gaza. All attempts to unify Palestinians have failed over the last 10 years, with Hamas asserting more leverage over Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. Obama, Kerry, the EU—and liberal press—pressed for a two-state solution but Israel has no peace partner. With Hamas controlling the PLO and with the militant Sinwar taking over, radical Islamists want only to destroy Israel. Hamas and the PLO have promised their people that they’re on the verge of conquering Israel, something so devoid of truth that it defies all logic. Every war Hamas or the PLO have engaged with Israel since the 1948 War of Independence, has resulted in only defeat, devastation and humiliation for Palestinians. Each defeat brings Hamas and the PLO more cash from sympathetic Arab states.
U.S. and EU officials need to follow Sinwar’s appointment to lead Hamas carefully before the next war breaks out with Israel. Sinwar’s militancy promises only more death, destruction and misery for poor Palestinians, swept up in Hamas and the PLO’s unending battle with Israel. When Trump meets Netanyahu Wednesday, the U.S. needs to turn a new page, no longer tolerating Palestinian jihadists seeking to topple Israel. Whether Israel continues to build in the West Bank or East Jerusalem is of little consequence to Hamas and the PLO, still busy burrowing tunnels, stockpiling missiles and planning for the next war that leaves Palestinians digging out of more rubble. “I think it is an indication that we might see an escalation with the Israeli occupation in the coming stage,” said Gaza analyst Abu Saada, expecting another war with Sinwar now at the helm.
