An Israel-Hamas ceasefire went into effect at noon local time on Friday.
The ceasefire marks the beginning of what is intended to be a phased peace plan that should result in the release of about 20 living hostages held by the terrorist group since it launched the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the Gaza war. The bodies of about 28 other hostages who unfortunately lost their lives will also be returned.
In exchange, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and 1,700 detainees from Gaza. An influx of humanitarian aid is also ongoing.
President Donald Trump’s complete peace deal calls for the demilitarization of Gaza, the relinquishing of political power by Hamas and the transitional governing of Gaza by a technocratic committee supervised by Trump and former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair.
If this all plays out, it would no doubt be Trump’s signature foreign policy accomplishment. For now, though, the prospect of the hostages held by Hamas being freed is reason enough to celebrate.
This conflict has been an ugly one, here at home exposing a dark underbelly of antisemitism.
What began with the slaughter by Hamas and allied Palestinian terrorists of over 1,000 people, including the killing of hundreds at the Nova music festival, has since morphed into a lopsided condemnation of Israel.
Media outlets have uncritically regurgitated reports from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, leftist activists on college campuses across the country have chanted Hamas slogans and so-called peace activists have strangely only ever demanded that Israel cease what it’s doing.
Reflective of this was a recent social media post by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of California, Los Angeles, which posted, “On October 7th, 2023, the people of Palestine righteously engaged in decolonial struggle, a means to end the 77 year long Zionist occupation of their beloved homeland, break the 17 year long siege on Gaza, and liberate the 11,000+ Palestinians held captive in prison cells by the Zionist state.”
According to them, it was “righteous” for Hamas terrorists to butcher, kidnap, terrorize and sexually assault innocent Israelis. If that sounds like brain rot, that’s exactly what it is.
It is statements such as this from the UCLA activists that reveal that much of the supposed opposition to the war hasn’t merely been out of a genuine concern for peace, but instead in service of defending what Hamas unleashed and twisted ideological commitments to frame Israel as the only guilty party here.
While Hamas’ useful idiots here in the United States and elsewhere have parroted anti-Israel propaganda while ignoring the crimes of Hamas, the Palestinian people have suffered the consequences of Hamas’ insistence on perpetuating the war.
Any right-thinking person has understood that what has happened the last two years in Gaza, and by extension in Israel, Lebanon and Iran, has been terrible. Innocent people have been caught in the crossfire, lives have been destroyed. Again, that was the choice and even strategy of Hamas.
As one NATO report on Hamas’ use of human shields going back to 2007 explains, “Hamas relies on the Israeli government’s aim to minimise collateral damage, and is also aware of the West‘s sensitivity towards civilian casualties. Hamas’ use of human shields is therefore likely aimed at minimising their own vulnerabilities by limiting the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) freedom of action. It is also aimed at gaining diplomatic and public opinion-related leverage, by presenting Israel and the IDF as an aggressor that indiscriminately strikes civilians.”
Once you know this, you understand the war better.
In the meantime, we hope for lasting peace in Gaza and the broader region. Perpetual war only benefits weapons makers and the most hawkish fringes of all parties involved. The goal here should always be peace, and peace will require repudiating the most extreme voices on either side of this conflict.