The mendacity of hope
The Promising Land #4: On ‘hopes’ for continuation of the pause in Israel’s operation against Hamas.
It’s not hard to see why this is the frame being deployed. After all, who could be against hope? Well, me.
Predictably, with the 96-hour pause in Israel’s military operation against Hamas nearing its end, Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to extend the truce.
No less predictably, those agitating for an extension are framing it in terms of ‘hope’.
So, for example, we get this from the BBC:
This from RTE:
This from Reuters:
And this from Euronews:
It’s not hard to see why this is the frame being deployed. After all, who could be against hope?
Well, me. ‘Hope’ is a dishonest frame because it soft-peddles what an extension of the truce would mean. There is a reason Hamas released a statement on Sunday expressing its interest in an extension. The past four days have given the terrorist organisation respite from the IDF. No air strikes. No ground combat. No surveillance in southern Gaza. Limited surveillance in northern Gaza.
This will have allowed Hamas to move men and weapons — and, importantly, hostages — with no way for the Israelis to track these movements. That its commanders want an extension tells us that Hamas is benefiting from the truce and wants more time to recover and prepare itself to face the Israeli military again.
Lots of people hope for the fighting to remain paused for understandable reasons. An extension would require Hamas to free more Israeli hostages and it would, in theory, allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians. (Hamas routinely plunders international aid for itself.) It is legitimate to want these things — laudable even. But there are less well-intentioned reasons for wanting a continuation. Some want it because they oppose Israel’s operation against Hamas, others because they appreciate Hamas’s need for additional time to regroup and rearm.
Framing an extension in terms of hope occludes these more sinister motives and misleads the reader into assuming it would represent a morally desirable outcome. As I wrote in my last dispatch from ‘The Promising Land’, Israel has a narrow window in which to inflict enough damage on Hamas to keep it at bay in the short-to-medium term. The United States will only allow Jerusalem to prosecute this action for so long. Every extension eats into that time and gives Hamas another day’s relief. The less damage Israel is able to inflict on Hamas before the fighting ends, the faster the terror group will be able to rebuild its capabilities and begin plotting a follow-up to the October 7 massacre that killed 1,200 Israelis.
This is not an easy message to package for anyone. The international community wants to delay any resumption of Operation Iron Swords, indefinitely if possible. The Israeli public wants their hostages back home. The Palestinians want to return to northern Gaza and begin rebuilding. And ultimately Israel will do whatever it needs to do to get its people out of Gaza.
But these considerations, all reasonable, do not change the facts on the ground. Israel is running out of time and every hour Hamas is not being pummelled is an hour in which it is getting stronger and readying to commit fresh atrocities against Israelis.
The only way to deter another October 7, the only way to save the lives of the Palestinian civilian population, is to diminish Hamas’s capacity for large-scale terrorist activities that necessitate an Israeli military response in Gaza. Hoping for peace is not enough. You have to make the alternative impossible.
The Promising Land is a recurring column about Israel, the opportunities and threats it faces, and its place in a changing Middle East.
I would not agree to an extension to the Truce . It’s simply a ploy to allow Hamas to regroup and plan . Hamas are now receiving a deal of sympathy and support .The consensus seems to be that it’s all Israel’s fault . However it must not be forgotten who attacked who and the atrocities which were committed .
This truce is only delaying the end of Hamas.
They may regather, re-enforce, resupply and recruit, but they will eventually be removed