Make sense of the news fast with Opinions' daily newsletterArrowRight
Hamas, a terrorist organization, lacks political and legal substance. It won an election in Gaza after Israel left in 2005 and subsequently established a dictatorship over the territory’s 2.3 million people through violence. Its war aim is not democracy or civil rights for Palestinians but to destroy Israel and establish an Islamist state — an objective as patently illegitimate as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bid to erase and Russify Ukraine, another recognized member of the United Nations.
At this point, Hamas’s war is not only unjust but also pretty clearly doomed. Down in their subterranean headquarters, the organization’s leaders must be aware their forces are being hit hard by an overwhelmingly superior Israeli military waging what it considers a fight for survival.
Advertisement
There has been no full-scale revolt among Palestinian citizens of Israel or West Bank Palestinians, which Hamas leaders called for on Oct. 7, nor a regional rebellion — beyond admittedly large anti-Israel demonstrations in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere. Iran and Hezbollah do not seem inclined to ride to Hamas’s rescue, as per the group’s other war aim: to trigger conflict throughout the Middle East.
Follow this authorCharles Lane's opinionsFollow
Even if Hamas now intends to settle for a limited goal — dramatizing the Palestinian cause and thereby derailing an Israeli-Saudi rapprochement it sees as selling out Palestinian interests — it long ago reached a point of diminishing returns.
Recent Saudi diplomacy strongly implies the kingdom will pursue relations with Israel after the war, albeit possibly with heightened demands regarding concessions for Palestinians.
Advertisement
Hamas’s war is not only futile but also waged by exclusively unlawful means. It began with the massacre of 859 civilians (at last count) from the Jewish state and around the world, along with about 300 Israeli soldiers, some killed while defenseless. That slaughter was accompanied by a rocket fusillade fired indiscriminately from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel.
Indeed, Palestinians killed by Hamas’s own errant rockets (or those of another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad) likely account for some of the 11,000-plus Palestinian deaths recorded by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry since Israel began to fight back. Clearly, though, the vast bulk of those deaths resulted from Israeli fire, and a very large portion, tragically, were noncombatants, including children.
However, Israel does not intentionally target civilians, whereas Hamas not only did so on Oct. 7 but also intentionally put Gazan civilians at risk by embedding its armed militia in homes, schools and hospitals. Equally clear is that Hamas uses these human shields for protection against Israeli fire — and consciously reaps propaganda benefit from their deaths.
Advertisement
In short, the quickest, most appropriate way to save Palestinian lives, including those of Hamas fighters — many of whom are numbered, albeit unacknowledged, among the Gaza Health Ministry body count — would be for Hamas to surrender. After all, it has no prospect of meaningful victory.
Nevertheless, many people in the United States and around the world, invoking the need to save Palestinian lives, are instead demanding a cease-fire whose terms are vaguely described but apparently involve an end to Israel’s operations without requiring Hamas to leave power or renounce armed struggle.
This demand seems at least as unrealistic as asking Hamas to surrender — with the important difference that it is also much less just. Israel has a right to defend itself militarily.
There is legitimate debate, of course, regarding the lawfulness and proportionality of Israel’s military operation, notwithstanding the dilemmas that Hamas’s use of human shields imposes on Israeli forces. Constrained by law, public opinion and the consciences of its troops, Israel tries to minimize harm to civilians. Even those who deny the sincerity or efficacy of those efforts must acknowledge that Hamas doesn’t try at all.
Advertisement
To put the burden on Israel to end the war is to forget that there was an agreed-upon cease-fire between the Jewish state and Hamas before Oct. 7. The party that violated the cease-fire — in the most flagrant, provocative way possible — was Hamas. Having started this war, Hamas should end it.
A Hamas surrender raises all sorts of what-ifs, including how to handle what would be thousands of prisoners of war, where to try terrorist leaders on charges of war crimes, and how to rebuild Gaza. These are important practical questions but, morally, nonessential.
The essence of the matter is: Hamas does not surrender because it believes, fervently, that Israel has no right to exist and that armed “resistance” to it, even at the terrible human cost currently being paid by both Israelis and Palestinians, is justified.
That belief is accepted, or at least not fundamentally challenged, by many on college campuses, social media and elsewhere who are demanding, in effect, that Israel surrender. Talk about naive.
Share Comments
Popular opinions articles
HAND CURATED
- Opinion|A silent desperation on the slow march out of Gaza CityNovember 12, 2023Opinion|A silent desperation on the slow march out of Gaza CityNovember 12, 2023
- Opinion|Meet Israeli hostage families. It’ll change how you view Hamas apologists.November 13, 2023Opinion|Meet Israeli hostage families. It’ll change how you view Hamas apologists.November 13, 2023
- Opinion|Israel and Hamas close in on a deal to free dozens of hostagesNovember 13, 2023Opinion|Israel and Hamas close in on a deal to free dozens of hostagesNovember 13, 2023
View 3 more stories
Loading...
Some questions are naive. But some naive questions are clarifying in their naivete. As an example of the latter: Why doesn’t Hamas surrender?
And, relatedly, why aren’t more people demanding that Hamas surrender?
Hamas, a terrorist organization, lacks political and legal substance. It won an election in Gaza after Israel left in 2005 and subsequently established a dictatorship over the territory’s 2.3 million people through violence. Its war aim is not democracy or civil rights for Palestinians but to destroy Israel and establish an Islamist state — an objective as patently illegitimate as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bid to erase and Russify Ukraine, another recognized member of the United Nations.
At this point, Hamas’s war is not only unjust but also pretty clearly doomed. Down in their subterranean headquarters, the organization’s leaders must be aware their forces are being hit hard by an overwhelmingly superior Israeli military waging what it considers a fight for survival.
There has been no full-scale revolt among Palestinian citizens of Israel or West Bank Palestinians, which Hamas leaders called for on Oct. 7, nor a regional rebellion — beyond admittedly large anti-Israel demonstrations in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere. Iran and Hezbollah do not seem inclined to ride to Hamas’s rescue, as per the group’s other war aim: to trigger conflict throughout the Middle East.
Even if Hamas now intends to settle for a limited goal — dramatizing the Palestinian cause and thereby derailing an Israeli-Saudi rapprochement it sees as selling out Palestinian interests — it long ago reached a point of diminishing returns.
Recent Saudi diplomacy strongly implies the kingdom will pursue relations with Israel after the war, albeit possibly with heightened demands regarding concessions for Palestinians.
Hamas’s war is not only futile but also waged by exclusively unlawful means. It began with the massacre of 859 civilians (at last count) from the Jewish state and around the world, along with about 300 Israeli soldiers, some killed while defenseless. That slaughter was accompanied by a rocket fusillade fired indiscriminately from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel.
Indeed, Palestinians killed by Hamas’s own errant rockets (or those of another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad) likely account for some of the 11,000-plus Palestinian deaths recorded by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry since Israel began to fight back. Clearly, though, the vast bulk of those deaths resulted from Israeli fire, and a very large portion, tragically, were noncombatants, including children.
However, Israel does not intentionally target civilians, whereas Hamas not only did so on Oct. 7 but also intentionally put Gazan civilians at risk by embedding its armed militia in homes, schools and hospitals. Equally clear is that Hamas uses these human shields for protection against Israeli fire — and consciously reaps propaganda benefit from their deaths.
In short, the quickest, most appropriate way to save Palestinian lives, including those of Hamas fighters — many of whom are numbered, albeit unacknowledged, among the Gaza Health Ministry body count — would be for Hamas to surrender. After all, it has no prospect of meaningful victory.
Nevertheless, many people in the United States and around the world, invoking the need to save Palestinian lives, are instead demanding a cease-fire whose terms are vaguely described but apparently involve an end to Israel’s operations without requiring Hamas to leave power or renounce armed struggle.
This demand seems at least as unrealistic as asking Hamas to surrender — with the important difference that it is also much less just. Israel has a right to defend itself militarily.
There is legitimate debate, of course, regarding the lawfulness and proportionality of Israel’s military operation, notwithstanding the dilemmas that Hamas’s use of human shields imposes on Israeli forces. Constrained by law, public opinion and the consciences of its troops, Israel tries to minimize harm to civilians. Even those who deny the sincerity or efficacy of those efforts must acknowledge that Hamas doesn’t try at all.
To put the burden on Israel to end the war is to forget that there was an agreed-upon cease-fire between the Jewish state and Hamas before Oct. 7. The party that violated the cease-fire — in the most flagrant, provocative way possible — was Hamas. Having started this war, Hamas should end it.
A Hamas surrender raises all sorts of what-ifs, including how to handle what would be thousands of prisoners of war, where to try terrorist leaders on charges of war crimes, and how to rebuild Gaza. These are important practical questions but, morally, nonessential.
The essence of the matter is: Hamas does not surrender because it believes, fervently, that Israel has no right to exist and that armed “resistance” to it, even at the terrible human cost currently being paid by both Israelis and Palestinians, is justified.
That belief is accepted, or at least not fundamentally challenged, by many on college campuses, social media and elsewhere who are demanding, in effect, that Israel surrender. Talk about naive.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
