On July 26, US Vice President Kamala Harris stated that the "two-state solution is the only path" for Israel and the Palestinians. Harris, who was speaking after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC, also said she made clear her "serious concerns" about casualties in the Gaza Strip.
"It's time for this war to end," Harris added, referring to the hostilities that erupted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Iran-backed Hamas terrorists and "ordinary" Palestinians invaded Israel. They murdered, tortured and raped thousands of Israelis. In addition, more than 250 Israelis, including toddlers, children, women and the elderly, were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
"We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent. Let's get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war," she said. Harris seems not to know or to have forgotten -- either is not excessively impressive -- that on October 6, 2023, there was a ceasefire in place between Israel and Hamas. Hamas broke it.
What is insupportable is that Harris completely ignored that the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip are suffering because of a war initiated by Hamas. She could have done many Palestinians a favor had she called on Hamas to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip and stop using its people as human shields in its Jihad (holy war) against Israel.
Harris's remarks concerning the establishment of a Palestinian state in the wake of Hamas's October 7 atrocities shows that she and the Biden administration continue to live in a fantasy world.
The October 7 massacres, if anything, demonstrate why the creation of a Palestinian state is actually a surefire way to perpetuate the Palestinian jihad against Israel, as well as instability and insecurity throughout the Middle East. China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are watching and taking note that unacceptable behavior goes blissfully unpunished.
Prior to the Hamas-led invasion, the Gaza Strip, home to some two million Palestinians, was administered by one of Iran's most dangerous terror proxies: Hamas. In 2005, Israel completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip after evacuating 9,000 Jews who were living there, and after destroying 21 Jewish communities. Two years later, Hamas terrorists staged a violent coup against the Western-funded Palestinian Authority and seized full control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas even assumed full control over the Palestinian side of the border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, a move that gave it and other Palestinians unrestricted access to the outside world so that Israel could never be accused of blockading Gaza. It was Egypt that kept its border shut. The media and the international community wrongly accused Israel -- but never Egypt -- anyway.
Since there was no longer any Israeli military or civilian presence in the Gaza Strip, Hamas had an opportunity to transform it into a flourishing, prosperous area. Instead of turning it into the Singapore of the Middle East, however, Hamas, with the help of its patrons in Iran, converted it into a vast base for terrorism and continuous Jihadi attacks against Israel.
"Sometimes, on happier days, I like to comment on the remarkable similarities between Singapore and the Gaza Strip," remarked Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid.
"Both are self-governing city-states located at key crossroads of world trade on the opposite ends of the Continent of Asia. Both combine density of population with a significant urban buildup and dramatic natural advantages, including a high-quality harbor. And yet, due to differences in civil culture and governance, Singapore has been built into the trade hub of East Asia. Gaza, as Saturday's (October 7, 2023) events have demonstrated to the world, has chosen another path: becoming a terrorist dystopia like the benighted lands formerly under ISIS (Islamic State)."
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, it already had a large and advanced arsenal of weapons from various sources, according to Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
"Hamas smuggles improvised weapons from Iran via Sinai (in Egypt) or through the Mediterranean Sea to the Gaza Strip, and it also self-produces munitions in local laboratories and workshops under Iranian guidance.
"At the beginning of the war, Hamas was organized as a fighting force on both sea and land, in battalion and divisional frameworks of about 20,000-25,000 combatants, some of them trained (including in Iran), well-equipped, and embedded in a network of combat, command and control tunnels at various depths and approximately 500-700 km long. This force was equipped with tens of thousands of light weapons, such as Kalashnikov assault rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, and large amounts of grenades, IEDs, and explosive devices...
"On October 7, the Hamas battalions were equipped with anti-tank weapons of the largest scale. These weapons included a variety of RPG rocket launchers and different types of deadly Kornet missiles. In terms of aerial threats, it is estimated that at the beginning of the war, Hamas had about 18,000-30,000 rockets and inaccurate missiles.... Hamas also has an unknown number of UAVs and drones for photography and attack."
Hamas, it goes without saying, did not spend millions of dollars to boost the Palestinian economy or give young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip employment prospects. Rather than constructing a medical facilities or educational institutions, Hamas opted to build hundreds of tunnels to smuggle weapons, attack Israel, and shelter its terrorists and leaders.
By supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, the vice president is indicating that she and the Biden administration wish to apply the Gaza and ISIS model to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Harris and the Biden administration want Israel to give up the West Bank and east Jerusalem to the Palestinians, who will surely use these two areas as launching sites for murdering more Jews as part of their Jihadi commitment to destroy Israel.
Because Israel has complete control over east Jerusalem, there is peace and stability in the city. By contrast, areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have in recent years seen the emergence of armed gangs whose members are responsible for countless terrorist attacks against Israelis and others. If Israel pulls out of these two areas, they will surely end up in the hands of Hamas and other Iran-backed terror proxies, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Public opinion polls conducted over the past few months have shown that a majority of Palestinians support Hamas and the October 7 atrocities. This outcome means that if and when a Palestinian state is established, as Harris and the Biden administration want, it will be controlled by the same murderers, rapists and terrorist jihadists.
This is the time to remind Harris that Hamas's charter views the Jihad as the way to take all of "Palestine" from the Jews and to destroy Israel. Harris sees a Palestinian state as the "only path" to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians, on the other hand, view the establishment of such a state as the first step towards eliminating Israel. The Hamas charter begins with a quotation attributed to Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Bana: "Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out, as it wiped out what went before."
Harris's remarks regarding a Palestinian state are seriously problematic: they send a message to the Palestinians and others that the US is happy to reward them for terrorism and the October 7 atrocities. Instead of talking about a Palestinian state, she should have told the Palestinians that they will never achieve a state as long as they back Hamas or vow to destroy a UN member state. Harris should also have warned the Palestinians that they will never be granted their own state unless they recognize Israel's right to exist as the ancestral home of the Jewish people, stop radicalizing their youth, and renounce violence and terrorism.
By advocating an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, Harris is asking that Israel, by allowing Hamas to remain in power, submit itself to unending jihadist attacks. What country would do that?
The Biden administration apparently wants to see Hamas commit more October 7-style attacks against Israel. Hamas has ready threatened to carry out unlimited massacres against Israelis. As one of its leaders, Ghazi Hamad, stated:
"Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force... The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name of the Hamas-led attack] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."
Demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is comparable to calling for an end to the US war on Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Unfortunately, destroying Hamas's military capabilities and removing it from power is the only realistic option. Failure to achieve those two goals will only embolden Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Russia, Iran and other global aggressors waiting in the wings.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
Julie