Trump says that Hamas thugs patrolling streets of Gaza is OK
The release of the 20 remaining living hostages by Hamas — starved, tortured and brutalized for 738 days after the Jew-hating group kidnapped them during the Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom — was celebrated throughout Israel and beyond. But it doesn’t mean there is peace.
Hamas says it won’t disarm — a key Israeli demand — and is already using the ceasefire to regroup, reestablish its hold on power, attack political opponents on the streets of Gaza and prepare new attacks against Jews. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas that it will have to give up its weapons “either the easy way or the hard way.”
Washington turned up the pressure on both Israel and Hamas to agree to the tenuous halt in the fighting. The U.S. rulers see the continuation of Israel’s defensive war for the destruction of Hamas as an obstacle to advancing their own interests in the Middle East and worldwide. That includes ensuring U.S. exploitation of the gas, oil and other resources in the region and cobbling together an alliance of capitalist regimes aimed at pushing back Beijing, Washington’s main global competitor.
“This is not only the end of a war, this is the end of an age of terror and death,” claimed President Donald Trump in his speech to Israel’s Knesset Oct. 13. “This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” But Trump’s words mask the reality that nothing has been resolved in Gaza. As long as Hamas exists it will threaten Israel’s existence and seek to carry out more pogroms.
The release of the living hostages and the bodies of at least seven others takes place two years after Hamas — trained, financed and armed by the reactionary regime in Tehran — started the war by massacring 1,200 people, taking 251 hostages and raping and mutilating dozens of women. It was the worst anti-Jewish pogrom since the Holocaust.
Prior to the hostage release, the Israel Defense Forces, which had been closing in on Hamas’ last strongholds, halted its offensive and withdrew its troops to a new defensive line where it still controls 53% of the Gaza Strip.
Israel in turn released some 250 members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah convicted of murders and other acts of terror in Israel, more than 150 whom were deported to Egypt. They also released some 1,700 Gazans detained since the start of the war.
Nothing in the second phase of Trump’s plan has been agreed to. Under the White House plan, Hamas’ tunnels and weapon production facilities are supposed to be destroyed and its weapons decommissioned, but nowhere does the 20-point plan say how this would be accomplished, by whom or when.
A “transitional government of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” is supposed to be responsible for running Gaza, supervised by a “Board of Peace” headed up by Trump. An “International Stabilization Force” is to police Gaza, but so far no government has committed to taking part.
Trump gives green light to Hamas
As Trump ended his trip to Israel, a reporter asked him about the reappearance of Hamas thugs keeping “order” on the streets of Gaza. “They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” he said.
Since the ceasefire began Hamas has stepped up its assaults on Gazans who oppose its dictatorial rule, killing at least 32 people in clashes with clans. Trump continued to give Hamas the green light. Hamas “did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad,” Trump said at the White House Oct. 14. “That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK.”
“It’s no different than other countries like Venezuela [that] sent their gangs into us.”
In fact, the biggest gang in Gaza is Nazi-like Hamas. It is being challenged by competing forces, some with ties to the Palestinian Authority. They seek to take advantage of Hamas’ battering by Israel and the growing hatred in Gaza for the anti-working-class outfit.
Hamas has its eyes on more serious forces — the thousands of Gazan toilers who despise its rule. Earlier this year demonstrations broke out with protesters chanting “Hamas out! Out.”
In a statement after the ceasefire was announced Hamas swore to “remain faithful to the covenant.” That’s its 1988 founding document that says Hamas’ goal is to kill the Jews and destroy Israel.
Illusions in U.S. imperialism
The day before the hostage release, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and U.S. Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff spoke to a large crowd in Tel Aviv.
They presented Washington as a loyal friend in the defense of Israel. Many in the crowd chanted, “Thank you Trump, thank you Kushner, thank you Witkoff.” But the idea that the U.S. imperialists are committed to defending Israel’s right to exist is an illusion, with great dangers for the fight against Jew-hatred.
The U.S. rulers are not looking to defend Jewish or Palestinian national rights, but to advance their own domination of the Middle East, which is key to trying to shore up their declining power worldwide.
In his speech to the Knesset, Trump said, “The hand of friendship and cooperation is open” to the regime in Tehran. But the central objective of Tehran, no less than Hamas, is the destruction of Israel.
Trump flew to Egypt from Tel Aviv the same day to attend a “Peace in the Middle East” summit he co-chaired with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. The nondecision-making summit was attended by heads of state or high-ranking officials from 20 countries, including Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, Indonesia, France, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Spain, all jockeying for a piece of the pie. Tehran refused an invitation to attend. Netanyahu said he had things to attend to.
Trump made sure he was photographed smiling next to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. A not-so-subtle message to Israel that the U.S. rulers will keep up the pressure for Israel to end its opposition to the Palestinian Authority playing a key role in governing Gaza.
Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar head of state Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Egyptian President el-Sisi all signed the “Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity.”
Hamas is enemy of Gazans, Israelis
More information is coming out on the abuse of hostages at the hands of Hamas. Some lost as much as 40% of their body weight while in captivity.
Tal Shoham, a hostage freed in February, described to the Times of Israel how many of the hostages were “intentionally starved” by Hamas or its allies.
Shoham said he saw how Hamas took “sadistic thoughts and actions not just against Israelis but also Gazans.” He witnessed a Hamas thug shoot a Gazan man in the knees just because he “looked suspicious.” Then after an ambulance crew started treating the man, the thugs finished him off because “they decided that he should die.”
Working people in Israel and Gaza are looking for ways to put an end to Hamas’ rule, which would remove the biggest obstacle they face to advancing their class interests and national aspirations.
“People are afraid. They don’t know if Hamas will give up power or not,” Izz al-Din Shihab from southern Gaza told The Times of Israel after the ceasefire began. “More than once we have protested against them.
“Yes, people are somewhat happy about the ceasefire,” he said. “But after that? What comes next?”