Israel Still Has Work to Do in Gaza

By Mark Antonio Wright

Friday, February 07, 2025

 

Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States should take an “ownership position” in the Gaza Strip and take point on rebuilding the war-torn enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East” resulted in jaws dropping on four continents.

 

But, as the editors wrote yesterday, “To put it plainly, the plan is not going to happen. While some [Gazans] might be open to leaving for greener pastures, plenty of Palestinians view Gaza as their home, and those supportive of terrorism aren’t ready to abandon the dream of using it as a base to destroy Israel.”

 

Yes, Trump’s real-estate development instincts are certainly notable for how far they depart from the foreign-policy bureaucracy’s fixations on moribund ideas such as the “two-state solution,” and they might get the chattering classes talking, but despite the attention-grabbing headlines, the significantly more notable aspect of the Netanyahu-Trump meetings this week was the discussion on how the United States would weigh in over the these next months on the upcoming phases of the cease-fire deal that was negotiated in January:

 

While it is still unclear whether Trump will exert pressure on Netanyahu to agree to future phases of the cease-fire deal with Hamas that could eventually bring home all the hostages and end the war, at least in a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Trump was noncommittal. Netanyahu outlined three Israeli goals for any final deal: “destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, secure the release of all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.” Trump did nothing to undercut him and said he was unsure if future phases of the deal would get secured.

 

The key point for Americans, and Israelis, to come to grips with is that Israel’s work in Gaza is not yet finished, because Hamas has not been destroyed.

 

NBC News’s Mithil Aggarwal reported last week that, in the days after the cease-fire, “Hamas fighters stood on the Gaza boundary [with Israel] once considered crucial for keeping them at bay”:

 

Eight heavily armed men, wearing seemingly spotless military uniforms and Hamas’ distinctive green headbands, stood atop concrete blocks at the Netzarim corridor on Monday, welcoming the tens of thousands of Gazans returning to what remained of their homes in the north. With their AK-47s strapped to their vests and their faces covered, the fighters took selfies, shook hands and handed water to passers-by. 

 

Witnessed and recorded by an NBC News crew in Gaza, the fighters’ presence at a crossing deemed vital for keeping Hamas from going into the north of Gaza raises big questions about one of Israel’s stated objectives in launching the war: eliminate the militant group behind the worst terrorist attack in Israeli history. 

 

Later the crew captured footage of Hussein Fayyad Abu Hamza, a senior Hamas commander previously declared dead by Israel, inspecting citizens in the northern city of Beit Hanoun.

 

The New York Times’s Adam Rasgon and Iyad Abuheweila reported, “The morning the cease-fire in Gaza went into effect, masked members of Hamas’s military wing drove through the streets of Gaza in clean, white pickups, carrying Hamas flags and automatic rifles”:

 

“They came out of hiding in a snap of a finger,” said Mohammed, 24, who requested his last name be withheld to avoid possible retribution from Hamas. “We had no idea where these people were during the war.”

 

Later on the first day of the cease-fire, dozens of Hamas militants turned up at Saraya Square in Gaza City to hand over three hostages to the Red Cross for release to Israel, the first of 33 to be freed as part of the deal. The appearance of the militants didn’t suggest they were on their last legs: They appeared to be wearing clean uniforms, in good shape and driving decent cars.

 

Despite a year and a half of war, despite killing thousands of Hamas fighters in battle, despite the elimination of Yahya Sinwar, and despite the huge costs to Israel, its economy, and the pressure on its people and its army (heavily made up of reservists), Hamas is still standing, and still fighting.

 

All it took for the terrorists to emerge from their blasted out tunnels and to reestablish control over the miserable people of Gaza was the IDF agreeing to temporarily take the pressure off.

 

During the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, critics of the U.S. war effort often argued that we should bring an end to these “wars of choice.” Politicians campaigning for office promised to “end the wars and bring the troops home.” Whatever the wisdom — or shortsightedness — of those promises, it was at least true that allowing the Taliban to win in Afghanistan or acquiescing to the jihadist insurgency coming to power in Iraq might be deleterious to American interests, but it wasn’t an existential threat. A victorious Taliban might allow the reestablishment of a safe haven for terrorists on their territory, so the argument went, but the Taliban wasn’t going to sail up the Potomac and overthrow the American government. Iraqi insurgents weren’t going to invade California.

 

Israel has no such luxury.

 

If Israel, on its own or under diplomatic pressure from the U.S. government, chooses to quit the war prematurely and accept successive cease-fire phases without utterly destroying Hamas, it will be acquiescing to the reconstitution of Hamas’s military power. Indeed, as the reports out of Gaza attest, that reconstitution is already underway.

 

On October 7, 2023, the Israeli people declared that they had two war aims: the destruction of Hamas and the rescue of their people taken hostage.

 

But the goal of destroying Hamas was never mere revenge. In order to secure their own safety and to prevent another October 7, Israel understood that it could no longer tolerate living cheek by jowl with a terrorist state. Periodically “mowing the lawn” was no longer an option. Joe Biden and Antony Blinken, of course, clearly did not agree: From almost the very beginning, the Biden administration pushed for different variations of a cease-fire proposal, always with the singular focus of stopping the war and freeing the hostages.

 

It’s understandable that both the Israeli people, and the new American administration, would want peace and quiet in the Middle East, and the end to the killing and the dying. But Trump rightly promised a clean break with the failed Biden-era foreign policy worldwide. There’s no reason he should embrace this one component of Biden’s litany of failure.

 

A cease-fire with Hamas that allows the reconstitution of its power and the reestablishment of its regime will guarantee one thing only: another war, more terrorist attacks, another October 7 down the road. Israel still has work to do in Gaza. The Trump administration should ensure that the United States is ready to help — until the job is done.