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Will Hamas Meet the Same Fate that Pharaoh Did?

Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
In his 1878 work Human, All Too Human, the provocative existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche coined the aphorism: “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.”
His words cut deep into one of the significant anomalies of the human condition — our tendency to confuse movement with progress and defiance with purpose. How often do we see people, caught up in the emotions of the moment, throw away their long-term best interests simply because they can’t bear to admit that the path they chose was the wrong one?
Just this week, Hamas once again rejected a ceasefire proposal that could have brought much-needed relief to the people of Gaza. The deal, shaped through ongoing talks in Cairo and backed by the United States, offered a 45-day truce, the phased release of Israeli hostages, and a significant increase in humanitarian aid. It was, by any reasonable standard, a serious offer. Hamas was also asked to agree to a phased disarmament — the most basic requirement for any long-term stability in Gaza and in the region.
But instead of engaging and looking out for the long-term best interests of the people they purport to represent, they walked away. For Hamas, even the faintest whiff of concession is anathema. They would rather watch Gaza burn than admit they’ve lost the war.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Al Jazeera Arabic that while the group was “open to all offers that alleviate the suffering of our people,” the latest Israeli proposal amounted to a “surrender.” He added: “Netanyahu is setting impossible conditions to sabotage the ceasefire agreement.”
This is classic Hamas messaging: an ever-shifting blame game that refuses to acknowledge any agency on their part. Every proposal is rigged. Every mediator is biased. Every path forward is dismissed as a trap. And meanwhile, a whole generation of Palestinians is being traumatized in real time — not just by the war, but by the insistence of their self-appointed guardians that war and suffering are the only way forward.
This isn’t a one-off. It’s a pattern that goes back years. After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 — evacuating every last settlement and removing every last soldier — the strip could have become a model for Palestinian autonomy.
Billions of dollars in aid poured in from around the world. The opportunity was there, and Hamas squandered it. They staged a violent coup against Fatah, turned Gaza into an armed enclave, and immediately got to work importing weapons, building tunnels, and exporting terror. Schools weren’t built. Jobs weren’t created. Infrastructure wasn’t developed.
Instead, the money was funneled into rocket launchers, explosives, and propaganda. Every truckload of cement was a chance to dig deeper — literally — expanding the tunnel network rather than building homes and civilian infrastructure. Every dollar of foreign aid simply became another line item in their war budget.
And now, nearly two decades later, the consequences are there for all to see. Tens of thousands of Gazans are dead — mostly combatants, but many civilians. Entire neighborhoods lie in ruins. The leadership of Hamas is either hiding underground or already dead. And the people of Gaza are trapped in a grinding, endless catastrophe.
What has Hamas achieved? Nothing. No political gains. No liberation. Not even regional sympathy. Arab leaders who once championed the Palestinian cause are losing patience. Egypt is now openly furious. The UAE and Bahrain — key signatories of the Abraham Accords — have little tolerance left for Hamas’s tired rejectionist rhetoric.
And Qatar, Hamas’s main financial patron, is finally being exposed not as a helpful intermediary but as a willing enabler of extremism, prolonging suffering under the pretense of support.
And still, Hamas refuses to budge. They posture. They release provocative videos. They demand total Israeli withdrawal and total immunity — all while holding hostages and offering nothing in return. This isn’t strength. It’s the delusion of strength. It’s the fantasy of resistance masquerading as victory, when in reality it’s a slow, agonizing suicide — not just for Hamas, but for every Palestinian they claim to fight for.
Truthfully, this kind of destructive defiance isn’t new. We’ve seen it before — in the Torah, of all places. Back in the day, Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth. He ruled the only superpower of the ancient world, commanded the mightiest army, and had the unquestioned loyalty of a devoted empire.
So when Moses showed up — backed by God, no less — demanding he let the Israelite slaves go, Pharaoh had a choice. He could have made the smart move. He could have cut his losses and preserved Egypt’s dominance. But no. Pharaoh, drunk on his own Kool-Aid and unable to stomach the idea of yielding to reality, chose to resist.
It wasn’t just arrogance and pride, though they certainly played a role. It was also about ideological delusion. With each plague — blood, frogs, lice, hail, darkness, death — the evidence mounted that the God of Israel meant business.
But Pharaoh refused to see it. He doubled down. Hardened his heart. Clung to his narrative of dominance and refused to let go, even as his own people suffered and his country imploded. And in the end, it didn’t just cost him his pride.
It cost him his army, his empire, his firstborn, and Egypt’s standing in the world. The mighty civilization that built pyramids and monuments was brought to its knees — not by the Israelites, but by Pharaoh’s own refusal to act with humility and foresight.
Hamas, like Pharaoh, confuses stubbornness for strength. They believe that by refusing to compromise, by staring down the world and clinging to their maximalist demands, they’re showing courage. But they’re not. They’re marching their people into oblivion. Every offer rejected, every opportunity squandered, every tunnel dug — it’s one more step toward the total collapse not just of Hamas, but of whatever fragile future might still be possible for the people of Gaza.
And just like Pharaoh, they’re not doing it alone. They’re being cheered on by a chorus of enablers — activists, influencers, academics, and state sponsors — who assure them that “resistance” is heroic, even when it leads only to ruin.
The tragedy — and the irony — is that Hamas couldn’t have done this alone. Their intransigence isn’t powered by courage; it’s powered by cash, by cameras, and by do-gooders cheering them on. From the lavish villas of Doha to the ivory towers of Western academia, the friends of Hamas keep feeding the fantasy.
Qatar is the worst of all. They’ve poured billions into Gaza under the guise of humanitarian aid, all while knowingly bankrolling a terrorist regime. The supporters of Hamas might think they’re standing up for justice, but in reality, they’re giving Hamas the strength to do what Israel never could: destroy Palestinian hopes for a positive future — permanently.
Frankly, I don’t mind. Because just as Pharaoh’s demise was not only his downfall but the platform for the Israelites’ greatest triumph, so too, Hamas is playing the long game of annihilation — and losing. The only question left is how much devastation their delusion will leave in its wake, and how many will be dragged down with them.
In the end, it’s the tragedy Nietzsche warned us about: Hamas is stubborn in pursuit of the path they’ve chosen — but utterly blind to the goal their people so desperately need.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post Will Hamas Meet the Same Fate that Pharaoh Did? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Series About Dutch Jewish Woman in Nazi-Occupied Amsterdam Premieres at Venice Film Festival

Venice, 82nd Venice International Film Festival 2025 – Day 7, Photocall for the film “Etty.” Pictured are Hagai Levi – Director, Julia Windischbauer, Sebastian Koch, Claire Bender, and Leopold Witte. Photo: Pool Photo Events 06IPA/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A six-part television series inspired by the true story of a Dutch Jewish woman who wrote diaries and letters in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam made its world premiere out of competition on Sunday at the 82nd Venice Film Festival.
The Dutch and German-language drama series “Etty” is from Emmy Award-winning Israeli director and creator Hagai Levi, the visionary behind “The Affair,” “Our Boys,” and the remake of Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage,” which he premiered four years ago at the Venice Film Festival. Levi also created the Israeli television series “BeTipul,” which was remade around the world as “In Therapy” and “In Treatment.” He attended the “Etty” premiere at Venice with the show’s cast, including lead stars Julia Windischbauer and Sebastian Koch.
“Etty” is inspired by the life and diaries of Dutch-Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, who chronicled for 18 months her experiences living in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. She refused to go into hiding and wrote from Amsterdam as well as the Westerbork transit camp. She was deported and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 at age 29. Her diary entries and letters were published in 1979 and have gained global recognition. They have since been published in 18 languages.
“In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, 27-year-old Jewish Etty Hillesum begins therapy,” reads a synopsis of the series “Etty,” provided by the Venice Film Festival. “What starts as personal exploration becomes a spiritual awakening, documented in her diaries. Guided by psycho-chirologist Julius Spier, her mentor and lover, she undergoes a radical inner transformation. She’ll discover that even when all is taken, one can remain free within.”
Levi said he discovered a book about Hillesum’s diaries roughly 10 years ago and “after breathless reading, I felt I had found something I could talk about for the rest of my life.” He explained that Hillesum’s diary entries also helped him during his own personal journey and exploration of his Jewish faith.
“I grew up a pious Orthodox Jew. At 20, I left that world forcefully, violently, abandoning questions of God, faith, and meaning,” he said in a director’s statement shared by the festival. “I tried to fill the resulting void — and depression that came with it — with work, ambition, success; mostly in vain. Hillesum offered another option: a different religiosity, a new sense of faith, beyond institutional religion.”
Levi added that at the center of Hillesum’s diary “is a leap: from a neurotic, self-absorbed woman to someone with deep autonomy. That process is accelerated by the threat she faces as a Jewish woman … At some point, she knows that even when everything is taken from her — her home, her freedom, even her life — she still has an inner core that can’t be lost.”
The award-winning director noted that the messages shared in Hillesum’s diaries are still relevant and must be shared, “especially after the horrors that shake the world of so many, over the past two years,” which may be a reference to the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He said Hillesum’s “rejection of hatred, solidarity with the unprivileged, and inner freedom have brought solace and meaning to countless readers over the 44 years since her diaries were published,” including the filmmaker himself.
“Above all, this is a love story: the love of a young woman for the man who awakened her soul, and out of that awakening — a love for life, God, and all humankind,” he said in conclusion.
Watch the trailer for “Etty” below.
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Israeli President to Meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday

Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks during a press conference with Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics in Riga, Latvia, Aug. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to the Vatican on Thursday to meet Pope Leo, who has recently stepped up his calls for an end to the war in Gaza.
The one-day visit is being made at the invitation of the pope, Herzog’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The president will also meet Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican‘s chief diplomat, and tour the Vatican Archives and Library, it added.
“Central to their meetings will be the efforts to secure the release of the hostages, the fight against global antisemitism, and the safeguarding of Christian communities in the Middle East, alongside discussions on other political matters,” the presidency said.
Leo, the first US pope, last week issued a “strong appeal” for an to end to the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for a permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza, and the provision of humanitarian aid.
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Iran Warns US Missile Demands Block Path to Nuclear Talks

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani speaks after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
The path to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States is not closed but US demands for curbs on Iranian missiles are obstructing prospects for talks, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
A sixth round of Iran-US talks was suspended after the start of a 12-day war in June, in which Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles against Israel.
“We indeed pursue rational negotiations. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path that negates any talks,” the secretary of Iran‘s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in a post on X.
Western countries fear Iran‘s uranium enrichment program could yield material for an atomic warhead and that it seeks to develop a ballistic missile to carry one.
Iran says its nuclear program is only for electricity generation and other civilian uses and that it is enriching uranium as fuel for these purposes.
It has denied seeking to create missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads and says its defense capabilities cannot be open to negotiation in any talks over its atomic program.
Larijani’s comments follow last week’s launch by France, Germany, and Britain of a “snapback mechanism” that could reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.
The three countries, also known as the E3, have urged Iran to engage in nuclear negotiations with the US, among other conditions, in order to have the imposition of the snapback sanctions delayed for up to six months.