What Hamas Wants in Postwar Gaza

[Richard D]

My summary: A fundamentalist Shiite Islamist state, from the river to the sea.
***

On May 6, in an effort to forestall an all-but-certain Israeli operation in Rafah, Hamas leaders said that they might be prepared to accept a hostage-for-prisoners agreement with Israel. Coming after weeks of stonewalling by Hamas, the announcement raised hopes in Washington that some kind of deal might still be reached that could free dozens of hostages and bring about a pause in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. But even now, it remained unclear how committed Hamas was to carrying out this deal, or whether it was simply seeking a means to preserve its Rafah stronghold, where Israel believes its remaining brigades and Gaza-based leadership are holed up.

After seven months of war in Gaza, the Israel-Hamas conflict has caused untold devastation to the more than two million Gazans that Hamas claims to represent and has all but destroyed Hamas’s governance project in the strip. It is worth asking two basic questions: What are Hamas’s goals? And what is its strategy for achieving them?

With its heinous October 7 assault on Israel, Hamas sought to put itself and the Palestinian issue back at the center of the international agenda, even if that meant destroying much of Gaza itself. The attack was also meant to thwart a possible normalization pact between Israel and Saudi Arabia that would promote Palestinian moderates and sideline Hamas.

But Hamas’s leaders also have political aims that may at first seem counterintuitive. They are trying to relieve themselves of the sole burden of governing the Gaza Strip, which had become an impediment to achieving the group’s goal of destroying Israel. And as talks hosted by China in early May between Hamas and Fatah officials have underscored, the Hamas leadership is also trying to jump-start a process of reconciliation with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which Fatah controls, despite years of fierce hostility between the two groups.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-hamas-wants-postwar-gaza

[TBF]

1. This post - along with the Independence Day post posted by Israeli - should be required reading.

I don't think either of the 2 extremist groups want a 2-state solution, each desire all of Israel under their control.

Lots of Israelis/Palestinians stuck in the cross-fire who only want to lead regular lives. Secular Israelis do just want to be left alone - they are tired of Hamas attacks. And no doubt secular Palestinians who are good people, just wanting to raise their kids, go to work, etc. and be full citizens of their State.

We need diplomacy, but it seems to fall apart because the extremists will not let peace happen.

[Richard D]

2. Thank you

Good comment.

[comradebillyboy]

3. Neither Hamas nor the Gazan population are Shia. But they

do want a fundamentalist Sunni Islamist state, from the river to the sea. Iran is happy to abet the slaughter of Sunni Arabs in Gaza and the Occupied Territories since they are neither Persian nor Shia. The death of all those Sunni Arabs in Palestine is marvelous propaganda for their cause. Oddly enough the rest of the Sunni Arab world wrote off the Palestinian cause long ago.

[Richard D]

4. Thank you . . .

. . . I still have much to learn.

[Beastly Boy]

5. This is the "liberation" that clueless college juniors

demand for the Palestinians in their protests.

A day under Hamas rule would cure them of their kefiyyeh fetish.