A ceasefire term for Hamas’ billionaire leaders

From the perspective of Hamas, a perfect storm of bad conditions has matured, providing Israel with a unique opportunity to put a spotlight on the terrorist leaders’ true intentions in keeping the Gaza war going – one belying the interests of the Palestinian people.

Such storm conditions include the following:

• Astonishingly, having supported Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, a majority of Muslim Americans shifted their support to Donald Trump. While these voters were angered over Biden’s support for Israel in the Gaza war, they were motivated by Trump’s promises to end the conflict. They may well have expected a reelected Trump to pressure Israel to do so, but that will not happen. While pressure will be applied by Trump, it will not be upon Israel as Hamas will soon discover.

• The leadership of Hamas recognizes the overwhelming election victory for Trump reveals a huge undercurrent of American support for Israel exists – an undercurrent that demands our country be protected by confronting Islamic terrorist groups wherever they are lest we have to deal with them on our own soil. Even Iran’s mullahs, who support Hamas, were shocked by this overwhelming mandate of a silent American majority.

• While there is tremendous support in America for the above, empathy for the Palestinians exists as well. Their suffering continues as they are unable to avoid the collateral damage fallout from Israeli efforts now focused on annihilating Hamas for its barbaric Oct. 7, 2023, raid that killed over 1,200 men, women and children and took 251 hostages. But any empathy must be shown to the Palestinians in a way also demonstrating the lack of it by their own leaders.

• While Hamas rejected the terms of the most recent ceasefire negotiations, Qatar – which has acted as an intermediary in such talks and has become very frustrated by Hamas’ failure to seriously seek an end to the war – has, at the urging of the U.S., told the terrorist group to close its office in Doha as it will no longer provide a safe haven there.

• After Trump is sworn in as president again, the factors favoring conditions for Hamas in a ceasefire or peace agreement will be at an all time low. Even Hamas has come to realize this, acknowledging it is open to “any deal” that will lead to a permanent ceasefire.

While Hamas often exaggerates losses from Israel’s attacks in Gaza, it exercises a great deal of hypocrisy in reporting on the inadvertent deaths of children killed in the war. This hypocrisy is due to the fact that, long before the current conflict, Hamas leaders harbored little concern for their children’s health and welfare.

The leading cause of child mortality in Gaza has been drinking contaminated water. And, along with the equivalent of 43 Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage generated daily by Gaza and flowing toward its neighbors, it creates risks for cholera and other epidemics from which the children suffer as well.

Gazans live atop an already depleted aquifer – its sole water source – which will no longer produce water fit for human consumption. Over 90% of the water obtained through it fails to meet World Health Organization safety standards. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Gaza is 47% with over 80% of its population living in poverty. The average annual income for Palestinians is $3,679. While little, if any, funding is applied to providing clean water, the government manages to fund an army of thousands with an annual budget between $100-$350 million.

To improve this crisis in Gaza, significant water purification and sewage control projects need to be undertaken, with money from what we will call a “Life Improvement for Palestinians” (LIP) fund. Obviously, this will require billions of dollars. So, from where is the money to come?

The Gaza health situation presents Israel with a unique opportunity to condition any ceasefire agreement with a term that would be most revealing about the real intentions of the Hamas leadership. Such a term would trigger one of two possible responses by Hamas: either open acceptance – which would offset a financial benefit long denied to the Palestinian people, enabling them finally to address their unhealthy environment – or open rejection, clearly revealing the greedy intentions of their leaders.

As Palestinians have lived in squalor for decades in such unhealthy conditions, their leaders and families have lived in luxury and safety outside of Gaza. Many reside in Qatar where their only concern has been about what sparkling water to drink. But more to the point, it is estimated Hamas leaders have squirreled away a combined amount of about $11 billion in their personal bank accounts. As terrorist leaders have been eliminated by Israel, their family members greedily rushed to these banks to gain access to their accounts.

A snapshot of this ridiculous wealth was revealed when the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was photographed entering into a Gaza tunnel with his family for safety just before his troops launched their raid last year into Israel. He was accompanied by his wife, who clutched a Birkin handbag costing $32,000 – a purchase that would take the average Palestinian more than eight years to save up for if he had no other expenses to worry about! Sinwar was worth $3 billion.

So, as to the question from where does the money come for this LIP fund, any ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas should demand – along with the release of all remaining hostages – that the corrupt collective wealth of the Hamas leaders be deposited therein for the sole benefit of the Palestinian people.

Would Hamas leaders contribute to such a LIP fund or would they simply pay it lip service to continue fighting a war that feeds into their greed and increases their bank accounts? The answer should be obvious.