US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said last week that he does not rule out the possibility that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas could be politically active in the Gaza Strip after it disarms. "They [Hamas] need to demilitarize, and then they might be politically involved in Gaza," Witkoff said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that was aired on March 21.
Witkoff -- who, thanks to his excruciating lack of familiarity with Arab assumptions apart from real estate deals, is increasingly becoming a major embarrassment to Trump -- appears to draw a distinction between Hamas's political and military leaderships. He also seems naïve enough to believe that Hamas would ever agree to lay down its weapons or halt its terrorist attacks against Israel.
"I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that's just me getting duped," Witkoff admitted on Fox News on March 23 about a ceasefire extension he thought he had just finished negotiating.
Duped is putting it mildly. Witkoff, who doubtless has the best intentions, is sadly proving the perfect mark.
Apparently, Witkoff believes that Hamas's political activities are not as dangerous as its terrorism. Otherwise, how could he even consider the possibility that Hamas could be transformed into a political party? This assumption, of course, is untrue and misleading.
There is no difference between a Hamas political leader and a military commander. They all share the same extremist ideology, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist and calls for destroying it through jihad (holy war). They all belong to the same school of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that needs to be designated by the US as a terrorist group. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, and Muslim Brotherhood is Hamas.
Hamas's political and military leaders have always remained loyal to the group's 1988 covenant, which starts by quoting the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Hassan al-Banna, as saying: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Hamas's slogan is clearly outlined in the covenant: "Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes." Moreover, Article 11 states:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of its, should not be squandered. It, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries...possess the right to do that."
Witkoff probably does not know that the Hamas covenant was written by the group's political, not military, leaders. When the covenant was published in 1988, Hamas had not yet established its military wing, Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The military wing was created in 1991. Since then, the political and military leaderships of Hamas have been working in full coordination. The group's politicians devise the strategy and set the goals, while its armed wing is entrusted with following them. The political leadership of Hamas ruled that Israel must be eliminated, and the group's military wing has carried out countless terrorist attacks to achieve that goal.
Hamas's attacks reached their peak on October 7, 2023, when thousands of its terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 Israelis and injuring thousands. Another 251 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 59 – alive and dead -- remain in captivity.
Hamas's political leaders, based in Qatar, were the first to celebrate the October 7 massacre by holding a special prayer. "This is a prostration of gratitude for this [Hamas] victory," said the late Ismail Haniyeh, one of the group's prominent political leaders, as he and his friends watched the coverage of the October 7 attack on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera Network. "Allah, please bestow your support and glory on our people and nation."
Notably, the October 7 massacre was masterminded and led by another Hamas political leader: the late Yahya Sinwar. The Gaza-based Sinwar served as chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the political leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February 2017. The fact that he was a "politician" did not stop Sinwar from committing the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust.
Witkoff and the Trump administration might have learned from the grave mistake the US made in 2006, when it allowed Hamas to run in the Palestinian parliamentary election. Then, the Bush administration believed that the move would encourage Hamas to lay down its weapons and turn into a political party. Hamas won the election, but of course never disarmed. A year later, Hamas staged a brutal coup against the Palestinian Authority and seized control of the Gaza Strip. Needless to say, Hamas's victory in the election did not top it from pursuing its jihad against Israel.
In 2017, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that it had been a "mistake" to allow Hamas to participate in the election:
"I think one mistake we made with Hamas was we really should have said they had to disarm if they were going to participate in the elections, along the lines of what was done in Northern Ireland, for instance."
Even if the US had asked Hamas to disarm, the group would bluntly have said no.
Recently, Hamas political leaders, in a series of statements have repeated their group's refusal to disarm. Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, flatly said that his group will not disarm and may even grow after the war with Israel. "We have an opportunity to expand," Hamdan said, adding that the idea of Hamas disarming was not even up for discussion.
Hamas's political leaders are aware that they will not be able to play any role in the Gaza Strip without the presence of their armed wing. The military wing of Hamas is crucial for the survival of the group's political leadership. The political leaders need the military wing to control the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, as they have been doing since their violent coup there in 2007.
Hamas should have no political or military role in the Gaza Strip, especially not after October 7. Hamas, which has brought death and destruction upon both Israelis and Palestinians, has no right to exist, either as a political or a military entity. Did it ever occur to anyone to allow the political leaders of ISIS or Al-Qaeda to play any role in Syria and Iraq?
If Hamas is permitted to continue its political activities in the Gaza Strip, it will comfortably continue its jihad against Israel. The group's political leaders will undoubtedly continue to call – in Arabic -- for the annihilation of Israel and encourage Palestinians to launch terrorist attacks against it. This is precisely what Hamas political leaders have been doing since 1988. They continued to do it after they won their 2006 parliamentary election, and they have continued to do it since October 7. Not a single Hamas politician has yet come out against the October 7 massacre.
Witkoff's talk about a possible political role for Hamas is dangerous, mainly because it implies that the US continues to view the terror group as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena. If the US envoy wants to see stability and security in the Middle East, he must insist on the complete and permanent removal of Hamas – all of its "wings." Destroying "much" of Hamas's military capabilities or disarming it is totally worthless.
As we are seeing now in Syria, a terrorist in a suit and tie is no different from a terrorist in a military uniform.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
Sandra Smith