A post-Sinwar ‘ceasefire’ is not a surrender. Only Hamas’ surrender or defeat can de-Nazify Gaza.
It is a moral and tactical failure to avoid the one word that would end the war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Vice President Kamala Harris keeps calling for a “ceasefire.” That is the wrong word.
The right word is “Surrender!”
“Ceasefire” implies that both sides need to do something, that both sides are at fault, that both sides bear the onus of this war. Not so. Let Hamas surrender. Let Kamala Harris call for “surrender” instead of “finally end the war in Gaza.”
Sinwar, the evil man who said that dead bodies must pile up on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides for him to realize his depraved goal of Israel’s destruction, is dead himself. So why the reluctance to say the word, “Surrender?”
Instead, along with “ceasefire,” we hear another wrong locution: “Take the win.” What win? Sinwar is dead, Hamas is not. “Take the win” means: Leave Hamas in place. Let the dead IDF soldiers and dead innocent Palestinians die in vain.
Of course, Hamas and Hezbollah may not listen to “Surrender” any more than to “ceasefire,” but the the two terms differ in meaning and impact. “Surrender” signals: There is an unambiguous right and wrong here. There are enemies here. There is a moral onus for this war, and it falls only on one side. If only Harris would put aside her “ceasefire” and instead say “Surrender,” it could change the perspective on this war worldwide.
As for former President Trump, he contents himself with saying that if he were president of the US, the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023 would never have happened. Maybe yes, maybe no, but either way — so what? To argue theoreticals about the past is to duck the critical issue about the present. That issue is: “Surrender.” Let the enemy be named, stigmatized and threatened. But Trump doesn’t do it any more decisively than Harris. Trump conveniently settles into theoreticals about the past and vagaries about the present. Neither will articulate the needed moral clarity about this war against Hamas and Hezbollah, about their aggression — Hamas’ having begun on Oct. 7, 2023 and Hezbollah’s on Oct. 8, 2023 — and about Israel’s need to bring them to their knees, to surrender.
And President Biden? He still doesn’t acknowledge that if Israel had listened to him and not waged war against Hamas in Rafah (in response to which Biden withheld arms from Israel), Sinwar would still be alive and the Hamas smuggling tunnels between Rafah and Egypt would still be in place. If Israel had listened to Bidenand not waged war against Hezbollah, Nasrallah and his henchmen would also still be alive and their military power far stronger than it is now. But Biden says to Israel after Sinwar’s death: “Move on.”
Translation: Leave Hamas in place. Leave Hezbollah in place. Leave Israel under threat and leave Palestinians in Gaza oppressed by Hamastan and leave Lebanon an eviscerated country.
Yes, the death of Sinwar is a mighty victory and a mighty blow against Hamas, but it is not —yet — the end of Hamas. For that, there is a shortcut: Surrender! Instead of telling Israel to “move on,” let the leader of the free world tell Hamas and Hezbollah, “Surrender!” Let Biden apply the pressure where it belongs: on the enemies, not on the friend, not on Israel.
Pay attention to a powerfully relevant but little noted fact that justifies Israel’s conduct of this war — including Israel’s rejection of Biden’s pressure to end it before it invaded Rafah. The relevant fact is this: It is only because of Israel’s insistence on targeting Hamas operatives even when they occupy civilian spots that Israel killed Sinwar. This triumph was not an accident, even though the IDF soldiers who killed him didn’t know that it was Sinwar whom they killed. This Israeli triumph was the result of IDF protocol in Gaza and Lebanon: Take down the site where the terrorists hide or fight. The only way the IDF got Sinwar was, after Sinwar fled into a building, the IDF took down the building; there was no other way to get him. A celebration of the death of Sinwar is simultaneously an affirmation of Israel’s method of fighting a human-shield-loving enemy.
So here we are: Hamas terrorists and Hezbollah terrorists continue to occupy civilian buildings, but Israel, because Sinwar is dead, is supposed to leave those terrorists alone. No! Call for their surrender —put the military threat and the moral pressure on them —or continue to destroy them. Do not call for a “ceasefire” that leaves them in place.
Talk of a “mutual ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that includes the release of the hostages,” as Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet has said, is predicated upon a greater willingness of Hamas to consider a ceasefire in light of Sinwar’s death. But if there is, in fact, a greater willingness, then call for a surrender — a surrender of arms, a surrender of the goal of Israel’s destruction, a surrender of the hostages. Anything short of that amounts to a call for the next war.
That’s not why Israel sought and killed Sinwar — to prepare the way for the next war.
© IJN 2024
