When Making Deals with Hamas
Rewarding terrorism with concessions only perpetuates the cycle of violence and hostage-taking, leading to more suffering and loss of life.
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Above is the Bibas family, kidnapped on Oct 7th by Gazans. No one even knows if they are still alive.
It’s time to address this “ceasefire” deal. But first, I want to share something that hopefully will wake people up to reality, because I know with what I have written here, I will get the usual backlash that I support genocide of Gazan children. Far from it, I want to see Gazans free themselves from Hamas.
To start off, here is one of the threats directed at me, warning me not to return to Egypt.
Other threats were made by this man, nicknamed Bango, against women in general, and Americans, which could have been perceived as terrorist threats. I write about why my life was threatened in My Life Under Sharia Law.
There are many groups on social media where women warn others about the men who have taken advantage of them. I found this one about Bango, whose real name is Ahmed:
I want to emphasize that Bango is not an Islamic extremist. Before he made this threat, I had known him for two years as a nice man, as a friend, and a moderate Muslim. I never heard a swear word pass his lips. People who stay in his villa give wonderful reviews on tourist websites, saying how nice and helpful he is. But they don’t know the villa was built with the money of his many foreign ‘wives’ who he fooled with elaborate lies so that they believed they were the only one, and they had ownership of the villa when, in fact, they owned nothing.
Beneath the moderate Muslim mask, the one Bango presented to me for two years, was a deep-rooted hatred of Western women and infidels in general. It is a hatred Muslim men believe they are justified in having because the Quran tells them so.
I want people to understand this. I want to make it very clear. You cannot negotiate with members of a death cult that openly, proudly demand the death of all infidels unless they submit to Islam. We should stop being surprised when they smile at us one day and chop off our heads the next, yelling Allahu Akbar. How many more times does it need to happen?
Already, it seems as if this ceasefire deal is off. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of backing out of the deal, saying the Palestinian militant group tried to "extort last-minute concessions."
“It’s very difficult for him to explain to many people in Israel, including people who are protesting against him, why Israel has to promise an end to the war when thousands of Hamas [fighters] are still there,” said Ehud Yaari, a fellow for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. “That’s a big question that people all across the political spectrum are asking. You’re going to end the war and Hamas is there?”
Pressure to reach a deal was exerted by in-coming president Donald Trump, making it clear he didn’t want to inherit this war.
On January 7th, Trump warned that if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on January 20, “It will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is.”
Too bad Biden didn’t say this on Oct. 8, 2023. And not just say it but mean it. Trump’s threat is too little too late.
And here, I must pause and go back to Oct 7th. I am an American, so I can only speak for my country and the shame and anger I feel that we left our hostages there, to be used as pawns in Hamas’s game, a game that terrorists have come to know they can win over and over with Western nations.
We need a reminder of that day. We need a reminder of Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, dazed and shocked just moments after Hamas terrorists blew off his arm.
The bone from Hersh’s mangled left limb was protruding when he pulled himself into the bed of a truck at gunpoint to be driven into the bowels of Gaza, greeted by throngs of Gazans celebrating the death and capture of innocents, as shown on a video released by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
We need a reminder of the propaganda video Hamas released of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, meant to mentally break the families of the hostages, the Israeli populace and the Western world.
Despite all the prayers day after day and night after night of Hersh’s parents, he did not make it out. He was shot in the back of the head, executed by Hamas in the tunnels beneath Gaza.
Other hostages who have been released tell of the nightmares they endured.
Moran Yanai recounts how she tried to raise her face after being captured, only to be hit so hard and told “Forbidden!” That was the last time she tried to look up or into anyone’s eyes.
Please listen to her testimony:
As I’ve said in other essays, the first word I learned in Luxor was “haram” or “forbidden”. It was a joke at first, to call everything “haram” because for me, as a foreign woman, I had my freedom. I never kept my eyes down when I walked in Luxor. I dressed modestly out of respect—well, I always dress modestly—but I was never told I had to. Over time, however, I came to realize that my supposed special status was all an act, that I was in fact considered to be a whore.
By the time I realized this, I really could have cared less what they thought of me. What mattered was that I had come to feel uncomfortable with my “special status”. Knowing I had freedoms that the Muslim women around me didn’t have, especially the girls to whom I was teaching boxing, became a problem for my conscience. This is why I got in so much trouble. At a certain point, because I am not a person to stay silent, I couldn’t keep living there.
In this video, Noga Weiss speaks about her traumatic experience on October 7 when her father was murdered, and she was taken hostage along with her mother from Kibbutz Be'eri.
She describes how one of the terrorists said he loved her and that he wanted to marry her:
“I thought I was all alone, but then he brought my mother to me so that she would approve of us getting married. Anticipating the approval he actually brought a ring and said to me ‘everyone will be released everyone will return home and you will stay in Gaza because you will marry me and have my children.’ Then he asked my mother do you allow me to do that.”
Noga says she tried to fake laughter so that they wouldn't get shot in the head. He brought the ring on the 14th day and Noga stayed with him until the 50th day. He kept repeating that “everyone will be released everyone will return home and you won't because you will stay here to live with me and raise my children.”
This is the madness of the cult that is Islam. This girl was no doubt a virgin, she was white, she was a Jew of “The Book.” All of this made her a real prize as a wife, and he would be the envy of all his terrorist buddies.
Here is another of the threats that was sent to me. Bango talks like this because he firmly believes all Western women are sex crazed whores, unlike Muslim women who are passive and submissive and will never stray because they have been “cut”.
With that context, listen to this threat:
It’s hysterical and it makes me laugh all over again listening to it now. Bango thought this threat would deter me, because I wouldn’t be able to “make sexy”.
In fact, I was coming back to Luxor to conduct My World Project, an exchange of art and writing between school children in Luxor and school children in Los Angeles. “Making sexy” was the last thing on my mind.
It isn’t funny, though, when you listen to young Noga, and you realize that the jihadist telling her so matter-of-factly that he was going to marry her had the exact same mentality as the Egyptian moderate Muslim, Bango. Nor is it funny when you consider my life was being threatened by this psychotic man.
In another message, Bango told me if I bowed to his wishes and recorded myself, calling myself a bitch, then I could return and “make sexy”. I mean, why would I do that? He thought I would happily humiliate myself so that he could then play the recording to his Western “wife” as proof that I was lying when I warned her not to give him money.
This is the thought process of a madman. Yet, he was a normal Egyptian Muslim man.
The sad thing is, no matter how much I warned this woman, even playing her the threats, she still gave Bango money, she still believed his lies and kept on believing them until she lost almost everything. Then, and only then, did she finally wake up.
We have the same problem in the West. We refuse to wake up.
In 2015, the New York Times wrote that Norway Offers Migrants a Lesson in How to Treat Women.
The goal was that participants would “at least know the difference between right and wrong.”
Really? Couldn’t the government figure out they had a real problem if they had to teach the very basics of “right and wrong” to the hundreds of thousands of men they were inviting into their country.
Here is an example of advice from the class manual: “To force someone into sex is not permitted in Norway, even when you are married to that person.”
In the English town of Rotherham alone, 1,400 white girls were abused, raped and murdered by Muslim gangs over a period of years. Many of these incidents are gang rapes.
My German friend just told me how so many Muslim men were assaulting German girls at public pools that authorities had to shut down the pools. Mind you, they didn’t throw out the men who were behaving so obscenely. German citizens had to suffer instead.
City councils across England, Sweden, Norway and Denmark continue to conceal the real situation for fear of being accused of racism. If these abuses are raised by local politicians, they are sometimes convicted of slandering ethnic groups.
These problems grow worse every day, because no one dealt with them when they started. No one was brave enough to speak out and tell the truth.
When we look at all of this, when we see the problems in our own countries, what kind of dreamworld are we living in that we think we can negotiate with terrorists, when Hamas REALLY lives by the edicts of the Quran, they aren’t just some immigrants or a local Luxor man.
So now, let’s find out what this “deal” entails.
The Ceasefire Deal.
This is one of the best explanations that I saw from Yudah ben Ami @MaccabeanShill:
The hostages: Of the 98 hostages still being held in Gaza, intelligence reports suggest that half, or slightly fewer, are still alive (including 7 Americans, of whom 3 are alive) 33 will be released in the first phase of this deal (women, children, elderly, & wounded / unwell)
The exchange: Approximately 30 Palestinian security prisoners, including convicted terrorists and murderers, will be released in exchange for each Israeli hostage. Many of them will not be released into the West Bank, however the problem remains that these released prisoners WILL pose a threat to Israel in the future
Gaza aid & civilians: Aid will be surged, ~600 trucks daily. This will almost certainly include construction materials, but how Hamas & other militant groups will be prevented from appropriating this to rebuild military infrastructure is unclear. Palestinian civilians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza during the first phase. How this policy will be enforced & militants prevented from moving north as well is again unclear, and frankly unlikely.
IDF force deployment & withdrawal: Israeli troops will gradually withdraw over the course of the phased deal, pulling out of the Netzarim & Philadelphi corridors, holding a buffer zone on the Israel-Gaza border. Crucially, this means that if fighting breaks out again, it will require bloody combat to reclaim these strategically important zones.
Fundamentally, this is very similar to the deals that Hamas has refused since May, the largest differences seem to be that Israel has folded on the demand to maintain control of the two strategically important corridors. Pressure from Trump led to this change in the Israeli position. He wants this war over by the time he takes office and needs to carefully balance the coalition of right-wing hawks and isolationists that MAGA has become.
In a strictly textual sense, this deal allows for Israel to resume the war if Hamas violates certain key provisions, but the practical reality is that it marks the end of this war. The likelihood of there being ANY international support for resuming serious hostilities in the case of Hamas violations is 0, and the Israeli public (and economy) is tired of war. Given the intense violence needed to reestablish a foothold in Gaza, once IDF troops pull back, there is a negligible likelihood of any further serious ground warfare in Gaza.
Post War Governance in Gaza: This deal supposedly will have a Fatah led government in Gaza starting in phase 3. There is NO chance this happens. Fatah has been struggling to deal with a far more limited Hamas presence in Jenin for a long time now. The idea of them being able to enforce their own rule and deal with Hamas militants is a joke. Barring some cataclysmic shift in the ME political landscape, no Arab state will go to war to stop Hamas from taking over Gaza again. In all likelihood, this deal paves the way for a Hamas takeover of Gaza within the next few years.
Pleasant fictions aside, this deal is a return to the pre Oct 7 status quo, albeit with an eviscerated Hamas leadership & massive setbacks to their military infrastructure. The enforcement mechanisms to stop Hamas rearmament are laughable, and the political will to finish this war in a decisive manner has evaporated, along with any semblance of international support for the removal of Hamas.
To many Hamas supporters, this deal will be viewed as a victory. While it is more complicated than that, there is an element of truth to that claim Hamas survived. They are likely to retake control of Gaza, and it’s anyone’s guess whether Fatah will maintain control of the West Bank. This deal marks a détente in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, but it will be short lived. I don’t know how intense the next outbreak will be, but the more time passes without a decisive and long-term solution to this conflict, the more painful and violent the end result will be.
There will be many more statements along these lines. Allowing Hamas and their supporters to frame this as a victory, and to enshrine that view in the Palestinian cultural mythos, is a horrible mistake that will have devastating consequences in the future.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claims Hamas victory in ceasefire:
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Gaza ceasefire deal announced Wednesday showed Israel was "forced to retreat."
"It will be written in books that there was a mob who once killed thousands of children & women in Gaza," Khamenei said in a post to X.
"Everyone will realize" that the patience of Palestinians and the "steadfastness" of Hamas and other militant groups delivered victory over Israel, the Iranian leader said.
Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya vows to continue the jihad, hailing October 7th as a military and security miracle and achievement:
“At this historic moment of our people's jihad and continuous struggle over decades - which will have more to come - we extend all expressions of pride and praise to you, our people in Gaza.
Congratulations on your steadfastness, your struggle, your patience, your giving, and your sacrifices which you have patiently endured. We salute all those who ascended in the most honorable battle and greatest cause, the battle to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.
The Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa marked an important turning point in the history of our cause and the stages of resistance of our great people, and the effects of this battle will continue and will not stop with the end of this war.
What happened on October 7th is a military and security miracle and achievement carried out by the elite of the Qassam Brigades, and will remain a source of pride for our people and our resistance, passed down from generation to generation.”
Hamas will never stop because they are a death cult, they celebrate death, and they have indoctrinated the majority of the Gazan population into that death cult and at the heart of the death cult is the death of every Jew on the planet and then, of every other infidel.
As Bill Weber @Bill59651691 responded to the deal:
If Israel rewards these satanic parasites with a deal that perpetuates their movement and encourages more "Aqsa Floods" and more hostage taking.....it will be a suicidal act with no benefits. We all yearn to see the hostages released alive, and pray daily for that end. But guaranteeing more decades of hostage taking by giving in to these devils seems totally self-defeating. Let's all pray for a miracle that enables the hostages to walk free without Israel making a single concession, but rather exterminating Hamas beyond recovery.
Such a miracle is unlikely.
Stephen Brisley, whose brother-in-law is being held in Gaza by Hamas, told Sky News of the agony of "limbo" as uncertainty continues over the prospect of a ceasefire deal.
Eli Sharabi was taken alive as a hostage on 7 October, but his daughters were killed by Hamas, Brisley said.
"At his core, he's a family man and we don't know whether he knows the family he holds so dear to his heart has been wiped out," he said.
They've also got no confirmation that he's still alive, as Hamas have offered no proof of life.
"We don't know whether we're bringing him out to welcome him home or to bury him."
It could possibly take weeks or months for Hamas to release him, so Brisley is keen to make sure the family are prepared for any eventuality.
Imagine, Hamas offers “no proof of life”. This father, even if he is still alive, will come home to the news that his children were butchered by Hamas. What sort of a homecoming will that be?
Not all families of hostages support this ceasefire deal. Boaz Miran’s brother Omri was kidnapped by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel, leaving behind his wife, Lishay, their two young daughters.
Miran is part of The Tikva Forum, founded to bring the hostages home “from a place of strength, faith, national responsibility and concern for the unity and security of all Israelis”:
Tzvika Mor, the co-founder for the forum, resides in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. His son was kidnapped by Palestinian militants from the Nova Festival on October 7. He said that at least 15 families are part of the forum, but that many prefer to stay out of the limelight.
Miran and other members of the Tikva forum reject the Gaza deal in its current form, saying that hostages should come back in one wave, and that Palestinian “terrorists” should not be freed. “We believe all the captives should be returned in one deal, from a position of strength,” Miran said.
In an interview with CNN, Miran said:
“We can’t have these monsters as our neighbors on the other side of the border. Sinwar was released as part of the (Gilad) Shalit deal (when the Israeli soldier was traded for over 1,000 prisoners in 2011), and look at what he did to us,” he said, referring to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack, who was killed by Israel last year. “We can’t agree to a situation where the released prisoners will murder our people in the future.”
I wrote about Sinwar in my essay A Vampire Came to Call. He was a monster who took delight in murdering his own people with his bare hands, describing the many Gazans who have lost their lives in the war as “necessary sacrifices,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Yet, Israel doctors saved his life when it was found he had a brain tumor. Imagine, he was released and went on to commit the worst attack on Jews (and not just Jews, I always must say) since the Holocaust.
After Sinwar’s death, he was idolized in Gaza and throughout the Middle East. I was sickened to read on social media the thousands of posts from Western influencers idolizing him as well.
And now, today I read of another Sinwar. Yahya’s younger brother, named appropriately, Mohammed, has risen up from the depths of hell to take his older brother’s place:
When Israeli soldiers killed his brother in October, the movement’s officials, based in the Qatari capital, Doha, decided to form a collective leadership council rather than appoint a new chief.
But Hamas militants in Gaza didn’t go along and now operate autonomously under the younger Sinwar, according to Arab mediators involved in cease-fire talks with Israel.
Unlike his brother, who spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison, Mohammed hasn’t spent a significant amount of time in Israeli jail and is less understood by Israel’s security establishment. He has operated largely behind the scenes, according to Arab officials, earning him the nickname “Shadow.”
“We are working hard to find him,” said a senior Israeli official from the Southern Command, which runs the battle in Gaza.
Thousands of new fighters are being recruited all the time. While inexperienced, they are launching hit-and-run attacks in small cells of just a few fighters. They are using guns and antitank weapons that require little military training.
Hamas is recruiting the new fighters with promises of more food, aid and medical care for young men and their families, according to Arab officials, who say the militants sometimes steal humanitarian aid or co-opt civilians to work with the militant group.
A war should end with defeat of the enemy. Hamas should surrender. It should be stripped of all power. It should not be given the chance to build again. But this can only happen if the people of Gaza revolt against their true captors—not Israel but Hamas. Otherwise, the horror continues.
If anyone has information of a single Gazan revealing where a single hostage was hidden, helping them to escape, please let me know because I cannot find that information anywhere. There are many inspiring stories of Germans who hid Jews during World War II and saved their lives. Where are the Gazans?
As for us in the West, until we acknowledge that Islam is a death cult, and that Gazans share responsibility with Hamas for the death of their children and destruction of their homes, we will continue to be stupidly surprised when ceasefires don’t hold, more people die, and more hostages are taken.
islam is indeed a Cult of death.
Thank you for this. I have not had time to write my own post yet, but I feel more anxious and despairing than I have for months. Between Hamas surviving and resurgent Jew hate in the West due to mass Muslim immigration, nowhere feels safe for me and my people. Thank you for standing with us.