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The US Shouldn’t Want a Ceasefire in Gaza; It Should Want the Defeat of Hamas
Pro-Hamas protesters outside the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Photo: Ron Sachs via Reuters Connect
It appears that the US may have found a ceasefire formula for Gaza; or it may not have.
Hamas, it appears, has already announced that it is not dropping one of its demands, as earlier news reports claimed.
According to NBC News, “Hamas has expressed concern Israel will restart the war after the hostages are released. Israeli officials have said they are worried Hamas will draw out the talks and the initial cease-fire indefinitely, without releasing all the hostages.”
The journalistic equivalence between the concerns of a terror organization and those of a democratic ally of the West is not surprising. That the United States sees an equivalence is not surprising either — but it is disgusting.
Regardless of how this negotiation goes, three points carry forward: First, a ceasefire only works until someone starts firing again. There was, in fact, a Hamas-accepted ceasefire in place on October 6, 2023 — which Hamas violated on October 7, with the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
Second, if the ceasefire does not include Hezbollah in the north, it is not a ceasefire — it is simply a shift in the battlefield. The 2006 Lebanon War ended in a ceasefire with UN Resolution 1701 designed to keep things quiet. Until it didn’t.
And third, given the rapes, mutilation, burning alive, and shooting of children in front of their parents that occurred on October 7, the US should probably not have engaged Hamas as if it was civilized and partner in negotiations, but rather helped Israel manage a swift incursion to meet the three perfectly reasonable Israeli goals for the war: securing the borders and the people of Israel; taking away Hamas’ military and governing power; and releasing the hostages.
Israel is built for short wars. The Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Second Lebanon War, and a series of Gaza rocket wars ended in (sometimes temporary) ceasefires that were in part the result of Israel’s size, reserve structure, and the limits of the world’s patience. In this case, it is US patience.
The early part of the 2023-24 Gaza war appeared successful by those standards. Hamas was routed from the north, and agreed to return 115 hostages in a limited ceasefire/swap. Israel destroyed tunnels under mosques, UNRWA schools, and hospitals, while evacuating tens of thousands of Gaza civilians who had been held as human sacrifices above the tunnels.
But the US had a different idea. After the early phase, as Israel delayed its entry into Rafah, the US — opposed to an Israeli military victory — began to stretch the war, demanding almost impossible Israeli measures to aid civilians and limit the battles.
“Israel is being measured by double and triple standards … that do not exist anywhere in the world,” said John Spencer, head of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point.
Refuting claims of civilian starvation and rejecting Hamas’ casualty figures as propaganda, Spencer compared Israel’s operations to Coalition operations in Iraq: “When ISIS ruled Iraq, it held the territory for about two years and built up its defenses. In the battles against the terrorist organization, the number of dead ranged from 10,000 to 40,000 people, and the numbers were reported only after a year.” Hamas has been building up its defenses for 18 years, and yet Israel is still protecting civilians in ways that White House spokesperson John Kirby said even the US may not have.
Retired British Army Major Andrew Fox agreed. “Critics are looking at IDF tactics through the lens of Western counterinsurgency (COIN), the doctrine … applied in the failed campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq … Western tactics were to seize a chunk of territory and clear it of enemies through military force. The plan was then to hold the territory through forward operating bases (FOBs) and try to conduct alternative governance in those areas while providing security. The system of FOBs meant that our enemies, embedded in the local civilian population, always knew where we were and what routes we were likely to use. They could mortar, rocket, and IED us at will.”
And did. Until we left.
The US was not looking for “victory” in Iraq or Afghanistan, and it didn’t get one. The troops came home because they could; thousands of miles separated America from its enemies. There appears to be no recognition by the US government that Israel cannot “go home.” Israel is home.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made it clear as early as mid-May that “victory” was not going to be in the cards for Israel.
While Israel may have some military success in Rafah, he said, it will be one that “is not durable, one that’s not sustainable. And they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah … We want to make sure it’s demilitarized.”
Like Iraq. Like Afghanistan.
Israel is paying a price for acceding to American demands for the deployment of its forces and the scope of the battle. Hamas has little reason to negotiate. But even so, in Fox’s view, “The operational end state looks like significant Hamas infrastructure is destroyed, its fighting capability severely degraded, and the border secured, with the IDF retaining the capability to strike into Gaza at will.”
The original Israeli goals.
The US would do well to help Israel cement them and force Hamas to return the hostages.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.
The post The US Shouldn’t Want a Ceasefire in Gaza; It Should Want the Defeat of Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.