Can Israel eliminate Hamas?
Of course it can. The terror group is not just some amorphous concept that solely exists in the mind.
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I get this question all the time, and the implication from the person asking it is usually something like: “No, you cannot eliminate an ideology.”
And then the implication of this implication is that Israel should not be fighting this war, as if there was another worthwhile option following October 7th.
But the real question is, what does someone mean when they ask if Hamas can be eliminated?
Ideologically? Sure, ideologies cannot really be vanquished. IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said so as much last week:
“Hamas is an idea. Anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong. The political echelon needs to find an alternative — or it will remain.”
But Hamas is not just some amorphous concept. It governs the Gaza Strip and has built a massive military presence there as well. With the help of Iran and Qatar, Hamas has also tried to make its way into the Palestinian West Bank, where the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority is based, but by and large Hamas as a governing and military apparatus is confined to Gaza.
Through the lens of this apparatus, Hamas is absolutely defeatable — just as, for example, the Nazi regime was militarily removed from power, and hundreds of other regimes throughout history have been as well. Some Nazis remained, even to this day, but the Nazis as a governing and military structure were no more and have not been since the end of World War II. And Germany is worlds larger than the Gaza Strip.
But defeating a regime is only half the battle; the other portion involves finding a viable replacement (the so-called “day after” in Gaza) that can withstand the inevitable forces keen on seeing Hamas remain in power, such as Iran and Qatar, no less the United Nations and perhaps other organizations as well.
To dislodge the Gaza-based Palestinians from the mighty grip of Iran and Qatar, it might make sense to bring in Middle East actors who oppose these regimes and also have peace with Israel. Of course I am talking about Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (The Saudis and Israelis have covert peace for the time being.)
But I am not convinced that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates want the Palestinian problem (indeed, the Palestinians are a problem) because, among other reasons, that could invite Iranian- and Qatari-funded terrorism against these two countries.
Unlike most Western countries, Arab governments are houses of cards which, despite their tremendous wealth, could be toppled with relative ease — and Arab regimes tend to operate according to this overwhelming fear. Especially in Iran, where the vast majority of Iranians cannot stand the Ayatollah’s Islamist regime.
This is precisely the opportunity for Israel and, by extension, the West. If they finally decide to hold the Iranians and Qataris accountable for exponentially destabilizing the Middle East, they will find plenty of willing partners. The responses to Iranian attacks against Israel a few months ago demonstrate that a regional coalition can be quickly created to put the Islamic Republic in its place.
The Saudis want it, the Emiratis want it, the Bahrainis want it, the Jordanians want it, the Egyptians want it — and, of course, the Israelis want it.
When you look at a map of these Iranian- and Qatari-backed countries and territories, they all surround Saudi Arabia and Israel. Therefore it seems beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran and Qatar’s long-term strategy is to maintain a “noose” around the Saudis and Israelis, which the Iranians and Qataris can tighten whenever they see fit.
And the Iranians and Qataris have succeeded in one important avenue since October 7th: These regimes want the U.S. and Europe to pressure Israel to prematurely curtail its war on Hamas, and they are using the threat of regional escalation to achieve this aim.
Iran and Qatar are betting that, if they can convince Washington and the European Union to stop supporting Israel because it risks igniting a broader blaze, Iran can force the U.S. and Europe to demand that Israel either ends its fight against Hamas and Hezbollah, or at least end American and European support for it.
Though there are also domestic reasons for growing pressure in the U.S. and across Europe to wind down Israel’s war in response to the Hamas-led massacres on October 7th, anxieties that the U.S. and Europe could be drawn into a regional war have weighed heavily on American and European decision-makers.
Hence why it was not surprising that senior U.S. officials reportedly held indirect talks with Iran in Oman just last month, regarding the potential for escalation in the Middle East following the hostilities between the Islamic Republic and Israel in April.
Viewed through a geopolitical lens, the conflict in Gaza might not be another chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian saga, but the result of larger international players positioning themselves on a regional chessboard, vying to lock in more global influence.
And this is what most people do not realize about the Palestinians: They have for decades repeatedly been used as pawns in someone else’s chess game. From the Egyptians and Jordanians, to the Syrians and Soviets, now to the Iranians and the Qataris, the “Palestinian cause” is really just a cover for other countries’ geopolitical masterplans.
Until Israel and its partners have a workable plan for dealing with the Iranians and the Qataris, the only practical option to substitute Hamas’ governing and military apparatus is an Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip, similar to what Israel does in the Palestinian West Bank.
Unfortunately, the world has been fooled by disingenuous actors — historically the anti-Western Soviets and more recently the Muslim Brotherhood (a terrorist organization) — into thinking that Israel is “occupying” the Palestinians. It is not, although we can argue about the definition of an “occupation” at a later date.
As demonstrated above, maintaining a military presence in Gaza is simply a much-needed security arrangement for Israel amid a much larger geopolitical puzzle, yet this wretched reality has been rebranded to convince gullible, history- and geopolitical-illiterate Westerners that an unjust, racist, colonial, White supremacist “occupation” is taking place.
Perhaps it is these same people who contend that “Hamas cannot be eliminated” — as if they know anything about anything.
Hamas like Nazism and Communism can and should be eradicated
Hamas is an acronym for Herakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya which literally means Islamic Resistance Movement.
Please realize this is not a national liberation movement but a religious supremacist group. They are fringe groups motivated by extreme beliefs. Isolated their teachers and leaders from their followers. Replace these people with leaders that have the interest of the people at heart and the enemy will be defeated.