Al-Monitor, a D.C.-based website that reports on the Middle East, reports that a senior Hamas official announced (although he later walked back) that the terrorist group is open to recognizing Israel. In the same vein, I’d like to announce that I have an absolutely lovely, historic bridge to sell you…you know, the one connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. In other words, if Israel believes this kind of talk, more fool her.

Currently, Israel is ascendent on the battlefield in Gaza, having killed at least 5,000-plus Hamas fighters (think of it as having killed at least 5,000-plus Nazis), with the remainder starting to surrender in droves, leaving behind the “hospitals” that were among their operational bases (with others located in schools, houses of worship, etc.):

70 armored Hamas terrorists just walked out of the "Kamal Adwan" Hospital in Gaza and surrendered to our forces.

You read that correctly. They left the hospital, which they were using as a command center, (and the patients which they were using as human shields), to surrender. pic.twitter.com/0Tau2zS95N

— Rachel Gur (@RachelGur) December 14, 2023

Militarily, Hamas is not doing well. That fact has prompted it to float the idea of a backdoor recognition of Israel:

A senior Hamas official suggested the Gaza-based militant group would recognize Israel as a step toward ending the long-running divisions between the Palestinian factions.  

Speaking to Al-Monitor in his Doha office on Monday, Mousa Abu Marzouk struck a careful tone on Israel some two months after his group carried out the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.  

If you read further into the article, though, what you discover is that Hamas is talking about becoming a part of the PLO. It’s in that context that Abu Marzouk said, “The official stance is that the [Palestine Liberation Organization] has recognized the state of Israel.” He adds, “We are seeking to be a part of the PLO, and we said we will respect the PLO’s obligations.” Abu Marzouk promptly undercut that by saying that Israel’s rights cannot be “at the expense of others.”

Moreover, after obvious pushback from Hamas supporters, Abu Marzourk “walked back” what he’d said earlier:

Abu Marzouk walked back his comments after the publication of this article, saying there was a “misunderstanding.”

“I confirm that the Hamas movement does not recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation, and does not accept giving up any of the rights of our Palestinian people, and we affirm that the resistance will continue until liberation and return,” he wrote on X.

Now that’s the truth. Abu Marzouk, who is worth $3 billion and lives a life of extraordinary luxury in Qatar, has no interest in peace. Perpetual war has been good for him.

Moreover, only someone very naïve would think that Hamas would walk away from its genocidal goals. Instead, now that it’s facing military defeat, it’s merely thinking about using the doctrine of Taqiyya, which means Koranically-approved lying to unbelievers so as to obtain a long-term objective. Nothing binds a Muslim to an oath made to a non-believer.

Image: Abu Marzouk. YouTube screen grab.

We’ve dealt before with totalitarian hierarchical cultures that seek world domination and lack any concept of equality. Instead, they exist in a purely up-and-down world (winners and losers, masters and slaves, believers and non-believers). Faced with a country like that, the only way to end their ambitions is to break them completely. That’s what we did after WWII in Germany and Japan. Until Gazans know there is no hope and a new generation is raised up that definitively rejects its elders’ values, Israel will merely delay a final reckoning.

For decades, Gazans have been fed from the cradle on a diet of genocidal hatred for Jews and the West. Left to their own devices, which is what another ceasefire, or even a faux “official recognition of Israel” would do, would not kill the cancer embedded in the people’s psyches. Their military must be destroyed, the current civilian generation controlled, and the upcoming generations trained in a new set of values.

I know it’s hokey, but I keep thinking of a song Irving Berlin wrote for his WWII show, This Is The Army. The point of the song is that, in 1918, the Allies didn’t make Germany understand that it was defeated. Of course, it was the Allies who, having decimated Germany’s economy, failed to stabilize it afterward. Putting aside that little reality, the song’s sentiment is the right one for Israel today: “This time, we will all make certain that this time is the last time…” (And yes, that’s Sergeant Joe Louis.)