12/14/2023–|Last updated: 12/14/202307:10 PM (Mecca time)
This is not the first speech by the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, since October 7, but it is the most important among all previous speeches, not only because of the phrases it contains with important connotations, but because of the circumstances and developments that have occurred since the start of the war, until now, and the changes that have occurred. On international positions towards the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Aside from the traditional phrases that are consistent with the state of aggression, and the bitter talk about the images of suffering that the Palestinian people are going through in Gaza, under killing and bombing, the most important phrases that Haniyeh said are related to the desire to engage in a deep political dialogue about the future of the Palestinian issue.
Movement is ready
The speech of the highest-ranking political official in the Hamas movement included the following:
“We affirm that we are open to discussing any ideas or initiatives that could lead to an end to the aggression, and putting the Palestinian house in order at the level of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and all Palestinian institutions, leading to a political path that secures the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Aside from the language and the various meanings it can carry, this phrase – and in the context of the surrounding events and developments – carries a message that says: The movement is not nihilistic, and it is ready to embark on a political path after the noise of battles subsides and the clamor of armed clashes stops.
It is likely that Haniyeh wants to give the United States, and President Biden in particular, a strong card to wave in the face of his stubborn ally Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government, especially after Biden announced positions rejecting this government and its extremist positions, and its inability to deal positively with the vision of the United States of America. To solve the Palestinian issue, which adheres to the two-state solution.
It is certain that Ismail Haniyeh and the Hamas leadership are thinking, for their part, about the day following the cessation of the aggression against Gaza, and how the conditions of the Strip, which was subjected to a barbaric campaign that focused on spreading death and destruction throughout the Strip, and making it an uninhabitable place for life, will be arranged, making it the responsibility of managing the Strip – and its reconstruction. Dealing with the disastrous state it has reached is a worry for Hamas, as well as for all followers and observers, and all countries interested in resolving the Palestinian issue and ending the bloody conflicts.
This comes in light of the heroic epic waged by Hamas and its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, which impressed the entire world with its ability to withstand and inflict the heaviest losses on the ranks of the Zionist occupation, which did not succeed in achieving any of its goals that it set before the start of the aggression, despite the passage of time. Seventy days of bombardment: air, ground, and sea, as well as continuous incursions and systematic destruction operations.
Blissful confidence in the reversal of aggression
Perhaps this is what makes Haniyeh confident that the aggression will be defeated, and to point out repeatedly and strictly that it is an illusion to talk about any arrangements in Gaza without Hamas or the resistance. These are not just empty words, rather they are based on undeniable facts, as the resistance is still inflicting huge losses on the ranks of the enemy and its invading vehicles.
Also, international patience – especially the American one with the atrocities committed by the occupation against children and civilians – is beginning to run out, and President Biden’s statements – in this regard – do not bear interpretation, and the enemy’s home front is no longer able to bear an endless war, and a war government, to say the least. It is barbaric and fails to achieve the goals it set.
If the issue of prisoners is added to this, which is the strongest card held by Hamas and the resistance in this battle, the outcome of all of this leads to an almost certain result, which is that the stage of searching for political and negotiating alternatives is about to begin.
Perhaps this is exactly what Ismail Haniyeh wanted to precede by saying: The movement is ready to discuss any ideas, and at the same time it is also a message to the Palestinian interior that Hamas will not allow its political opponent – who is located in the Ramallah district, and who sits by watching the massacre in Gaza – to take the lead in talking about post-aggression arrangements, or post-Hamas. Even if he tried to appear to reject the aggression and refuse to exclude Hamas.