Raise your hand if you saw this coming: Hamas reportedly rejected Israel’s generous offer for a two-month ceasefire. These antics are what you get when you barter with an actor who isn’t rational. They’re bloodthirsty terrorists who’d rather die than agree to anything offered by Israel. Fine—the IDF should continue to wipe them off the planet.
The only hiccup is that this comes from anonymous sources. Israel has yet to confirm that Hamas has rejected the deal, but would you be surprised if this was the case? For Hamas’ leadership, it’s quite the offer, as it allowed its leadership to leave the strip (via Times of Israel):
Hamas just rejected an Israeli offer for a two-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of remaining hostages.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) January 23, 2024
The #CeasefireNow crowd is awfully quiet all of a sudden...
Hamas has rejected Israel’s proposal for a two-month ceasefire during which the terror group would release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, said a senior Egyptian official on Tuesday, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The official said that Hamas leaders have also refused to leave Gaza and are demanding that Israel fully withdraw from the territory and allow Palestinians to return to their homes.
Israel did not confirm the report. Channel 12 news quoted unnamed Israeli officials saying on Tuesday evening that Israel has not been informed of Hamas rejecting the offer.
Under Israel’s proposal, Yahya Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
[…]
The Axios news site reported on Monday that Israel had submitted a proposal through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that would see it agree to pause its military offensive in exchange for a phased release of the remaining 136 hostages in Gaza.
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Hamas has accepted past ceasefires and released some hostages, though they violated the agreement by continuing to fire rockets into Israel. These folks can’t be trusted. And while I understand that any negotiations must involve Hamas, it’s truly a waste of time.
John Hannah, a fellow at JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy, noted that Israel’s offer was the most generous yet and carried the risk of incurring more international outrage: it’s hard to restart a war when a ceasefire is that long. He added that that period would be prime for Iran to rearm its regional proxies. Last, he pitched the only offer that Hamas would accept, which Israel would reject outright: a permanent ceasefire accompanied by a total withdrawal of all IDF forces from the Gaza Strip.
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