Fighting terrorists is like playing chess with an opponent who has no respect for the rules of the game to the point that whenever they find themselves losing, they flip over the board so they can start over again. We know from former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s own mouth that in negotiations with Israel it has always been Hamas who has refused to accept whatever offer, no matter how reasonable, has been on the table.

But President Trump is the new sheriff in town and during the transition he declaimed that there would be hell to pay if the hostages were not released before his inauguration. So Hamas finally agreed to accept a hostages-for-ceasefire deal and now they are doing their best to make it work in their favor.
The first stage of the hostages-for-ceasefire deal is scheduled to last forty-two days. Some people think that this will lead into phase two and three with complete withdrawal of Israeli forces by the end of it and Hamas reasserting its rule over Gaza; in other words Hamas wins the war. Consequently, the West under Hamas’ tutelage will build Gaza back better so that the next time Hamas pulls off a 10/7 it will be better able to resist the Israeli counteroffensive and so on and so forth until time immemorial.
It is highly unlikely, unthinkable really, that this is how things will unfold. President Trump himself has said that he doubts that we will be seeing phase three and in the meantime as hostages are slowly being returned Israel is certainly not sitting on its hands.
Consider first what Hamas is doing or trying to do in Gaza. Part of it is what Richard Landes has popularized as Pallywood, making things appear to be other than the are. In this instance Hamas wants to appear to the world much stronger than it is. Careful observers who have looked closely at the Hamas celebrations have noted that the terrorists who poured out into the streets at the beginning of the ceasefire though well-fed, well-dressed and well-groomed were not well armed.
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