Resistance is Not the End: How to Push Through and Achieve Your Goals
In an interview with the American newspaper The New York Times, Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Islamic resistance movement abroad, Hamas, explained the resistance’s conditions for reaching a prisoner exchange agreement and ending the war, stressing the resistance’s loyalty. Conditions
Israel says it has killed thousands of members of the Palestinian Islamist resistance movement “Hamas”, destroyed almost all of its brigades’ command structures and hit its tunnel network. The bombing campaign in Gaza has been so devastating that its urban landmarks are unrecognizable. ,
However, the Israeli military says eliminating Hamas is not possible – even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for “total victory” over the movement. ,
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Meshaal said the movement is winning the battle and will play a decisive role in Gaza’s future. ,
Meshaal said in an interview with the New York Times in Doha, Qatar: “Hamas has now gained the upper hand and is wearing down the Israeli army.” ,
From Hamas’ perspective, the explanation is simple: victory means survival, at least for now, and the movement has managed to achieve this despite being severely weakened. ,
Meshaal’s statements, in a two-hour interview conducted with him in the living room of his home in Doha, provide a rare glimpse into the way Hamas officials think. He is one of the most senior figures in Hamas’ political bureau, and is considered one of the most important architects of the movement’s strategy. ,
Meshaal was targeted by Israel in a failed assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997. He headed the political bureau of the movement for more than two decades. ,
In early September, US federal prosecutors formally charged him and other Hamas leaders with playing a central role in planning and directing the October 7 attacks on Israel. ,
Meshaal explained in the interview that Hamas officials would not negotiate a cease-fire agreement with Israel at any price, and that they would not give up their core demands of an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal. ,
Independent analysts have reached similar assessments of Hamas’ priorities. Ghaith al-Omari, an expert on Palestinian affairs, said: “They feel that time is on their side and they believe they have no choice.”
It is confidence that is constantly tested on the battlefield inside Gaza. Although Hamas remains a dominant force within the Gaza Strip, it has faced criticism from Gazans who blame the movement for their losses. Also, Hamas’ definition of success may not be accurate if the war drags on for years and Israel succeeds in eliminating most of its remaining military forces, according to Palestinian analysts. ,
At the start of the war, President Biden expressed a position similar to Netanyahu’s that Hamas must be eliminated. But Biden is no longer talking about eliminating the movement, not to mention that both the United States and Israel have engaged in indirect talks with Hamas. ,
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Meshaal said he came to the conclusion that the United States had accepted that Hamas was not going anywhere. ,
Referring to the positions taken by both Israel and the United States at the outset, Meshal said: “The Israeli-American approach was not about the day after the war, but about the day after Hamas.” ,
Then he said: “Now, the United States is waiting for Hamas’s response.” ,
He added, noting that the movement is classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and Israel: “They thus, in fact, recognize Hamas.” ,
Some former Israeli security officials say they believe Hamas cannot be expected to lose the war. ,
“Hamas is winning this war, but our soldiers are winning the tactical battle with Hamas, but we are losing the war,” said General Gadi Shamni, former commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza Corps. ,
Thousands of Hamas fighters and government officials still impose their control over large swaths of Gaza. In cities that Israeli forces briefly controlled, their eventual departure created a vacuum that was quickly filled by Hamas and other armed resistance groups. ,
General Shamni said that while it cannot be denied that Israel has destroyed Hamas’ military capabilities, Hamas is returning and expanding its control over cities “within 15 minutes” of an Israeli withdrawal. ,
He added: “There is no one who can challenge Hamas after the Israeli forces leave.” ,
General Shamani said the biggest failure was that Netanyahu did not try to present a realistic alternative to an entity governing Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal. ,
In late June, Israeli military spokesman Commodore Daniel Hagari rejected Netanyahu’s suggestion that Hamas could be wiped out. ,
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 13, he said: “Anyone who thinks that we will make Hamas disappear, the idea that it is possible to destroy Hamas, to make Hamas disappear from existence – it is like putting ashes in the eyes of the people is wrong. “
Defense Minister Yoav Galant last month described Netanyahu’s “total victory” slogan as “empty talk”. Some Israeli security officials say the war with Hamas will be handed down to their children
The Israeli army says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in Gaza. A military intelligence official said this summer that Israel has succeeded in reducing Hamas’s ability to fire long-range missiles at Israel, although they still have less sophisticated munitions. ,
The official said that the work of seizing and demolishing the tunnels was a very complex engineering project and could take several years to complete. ,
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Some members of the military leadership have concluded that a ceasefire with Hamas is the best way forward, even if it keeps the movement in power for the time being. ,
Despite the heavy losses suffered by Hamas, including senior leaders killed by Israel, Meshal expressed confidence that the movement would play a dominant role in Gaza after the war, and scorned American and Israeli proposals to manage the territory without Hamas. ,
He said: “All their illusions about filling the void are behind us.” ,
The United States proposed bringing a revived Palestinian Authority into Gaza, while the Israeli defense minister advised Arab forces to maintain security in the region. As for Netanyahu, he suggested working with “local stakeholders who have administrative experience.” ,
Insisting that the Palestinians alone decide on the settlement of the region, Meshal said: “The idea that Hamas will not be present in Gaza or that it will not affect the situation inside the Strip is a false assumption.” ,
Hamas’ confidence in maintaining a dominant role in post-war Gaza was also noted in some private meetings with Palestinian politicians. ,
When Palestinian politician Samir al-Mashrawi met with Hamas leaders in Doha in November 2023, Hamas seemed fully prepared to participate in an extended manner of power inside Gaza, including the highly sensitive issue of security, with two Palestinians knowing. What happened in the meeting.
It is worth noting that al-Masharawi is one of the close associates of the ousted leader of the Fatah movement, Muhammad Dahlan, who works for the president of the United Arab Emirates. ,
Then, when al-Mashharawi met with Hamas officials more than six months later, they jointly sent a stronger message, saying the group was ready to work together on all matters related to civilian issues, but Hamas’ military wing and its internal intelligence force. It is forbidden to go near it, as well as two Palestinians. ,
As the war’s first anniversary approaches, Akram Atallah, a journalist who writes a column for the Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam newspaper, lists Hamas’ achievements, including that it prevented Israel from achieving a decisive victory and that it forced Israel to He had to send envoys to negotiate with him and he retained a large number of warriors. ,
He also said that Hamas’s hold could loosen over time, adding: “If the war ends now, it will be a victory for Hamas. But if it ends two years later, the outcome could change and we don’t know where. Things will lead.” .” ,
Whatever happens to Hamas, Gaza’s civilians have paid the highest price. Thousands of people were killed, and most of the population of about two million were displaced and left homeless. ,
Many Palestinians inside Gaza were angry over the October 7 attack against Hamas, which killed 1,200 people, and accused the movement of giving Israel a pretext to carry out a massive bombing campaign that reduced cities to rubble. ,
As for Meshaal, he rejected criticism directed at Hamas over his decision and said that Palestinian critics of Hamas represent a minority. ,
He said: “As a Palestinian, my duty is to fight and resist until liberation.” ,
But he acknowledged that the attack had caused widespread destruction, but considered it a “price” that Palestinians must pay for freedom. ,
Asked how the Hamas-led offensive helped improve the situation in the wake of the devastation in Gaza, he insisted that it was not about achieving a military victory over Israel as much as proving that its policies were futile. ,
He said: “Before October 7, Gaza was slowly dying. We were in a huge prison and we wanted to get out of that situation.” ,
Arab media distorted the interview
After the newspaper published the interview, Arab media published Meshaal’s fragmented statement to distort the movement’s position on talks seeking to end the war in Gaza.
A statement from the Hamas movement said: “We within the Islamic Resistance Movement condemn the fact that an Arab media outlet quoted clips from a New York Times interview with Mujahid Bhai, the head of the movement’s overseas territories. Khaled Mashal, and changed them with the intention of distorting the position of the movement.”
The statement emphasized the movement’s clear position on negotiations, which are “responsive to all initiatives that achieve the interests of our people, and the desire to reach a permanent end to the aggression, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, freedom. for the displaced to return to their homes, and this occupation which destroyed his reconstruction, leading to a real agreement for the exchange of prisoners.”
It said: “The one who bears responsibility for disrupting the course of the talks is Netanyahu and his fascist government, which insists on imposing new conditions that undermine the agreement, and this has become known to all, including the mediators.”
The statement called on the media, which misrepresents and distorts the situation, to strive for the truth, respect the principles of media professionalism, adhere to the media code of honor and refrain from propagating false possession narratives.