"On the Record with Hamas": Jeremy Scahill Speaks with Hamas About Oct. 7, Ceasefire Talks & Israel

[AloeVera]

6. Your take is interesting too...

I thought it superfluous to state that Israel will continue until their oft-stated goal of "destroying Hamas" is achieved. I have no doubt about that. I was simply responding to your assertion that "if only" Hamas surrendered, all would be lollipops and sunshine or "peace" as you call it.

But now that you raise it, let me say that I think the "destroy Hamas" narrative, while I have no doubt that it's truthful, is not the entire truth either. As long as Hamas is "undestroyed", Israel has the perfect pretext for continuing the destruction of Gaza and its people. We might find out that Hamas is in fact indestructible - it is more an idea and ideology and a semi-clandestine paramilitary force than an actual army after all - and its elimination might take years of war and occupation and even then it will spring back up in one form or another.

But curiously, you have now gone from calling for Hamas' surrender as the solution to ending the "war", to admitting the obvious: Israel will not end its campaign of destruction of Gaza and its people, no matter what, until Hamas is "destroyed" whatever the hell that actually means as you really can't destroy the Palestinians' yearning for freedom from the Israeli yoke. The sad reality that should be clear to everyone unless they are either extremely naive or purposely obtuse is that the goal of the destruction of Hamas really means the destruction of the Palestinians.