Bassam Tawil
Gatestone Institute, Sept. 3, 2024
“Hamas leaders are banking on the Biden administration to compel the Israeli government to give in to the terror group’s demands. The Hamas leaders see the ongoing tensions between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government as an encouraging development. It has long been the dream of Hamas and many Palestinians to see the US turn its back on Israel.”
The aim of the execution of six Israeli hostages by the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was to shock the Israeli public and incite it to rebel against the Israeli government. The goal of the executions, which reportedly took place in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip last week, was also to convey to the Biden administration the need to increase pressure on Israel to accede to most of Hamas’s demands in exchange for the release of the captives the terrorist group is holding in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders are undoubtedly rubbing their hands with delight as startled and distraught Israelis take to the streets to demand an immediate hostage-ceasefire deal with the Islamist terror group. Since the discovery of the bodies of the hostages (one of them, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was a US citizen) last weekend, tens of thousands of people have been protesting in various parts of Israel. They are demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government accept any deal with Hamas that would see the remaining 101 hostages – dead and alive – reunited with their families.
Israel’s biggest union, the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in Israel), joined the anti-government protesters by announcing a nationwide strike as part of the pressure to force Netanyahu to accept any deal that would secure the release of the hostages. These are exactly the scenes Hamas is happy to see: demonstrators blocking main highways and clashing with the police.
The latest anti-government protests in Israel, triggered by the murder of the six hostages, are being extensively covered and celebrated by Hamas-affiliated media outlets. The protesters are being referred to by Hamas and its supporters as “Jewish settlers,” although they live inside Israel, not in West Bank settlements.
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