Today is the last day of hostage exchange. The first three days did not go without some minor problems. The most serious of them was due to what appears to me to be an effort by Hamas to gain points in the propaganda war. Since Israel has openly declared one of its major objectives is the elimination of Hamas as a military threat, the thought that is foremost in the minds of the Hamas leaders is ‘How do we survive?”. Previous encounters all ended with a cease-fire that left Hamas in power, and able to declare a victory. Their total control over the media also allowed them to shape the narrative describing the ending. It looks like this is what they are trying to do now.
The first step for Hamas in a fight to survive is to put an end to the fighting. The longer the “pause” in fighting is maintained, the harder it is for Israel to return to the battlefield in opposition to “international opinion” (whatever that may be). The hostage deal has a clause that supports additional days of quiet in return for the release of additional hostages. The exchange rate in the document is 1 day of pause for 10 released hostages. Other terms, as far as I know, have not been made public. But they exist. Hamas has already told the media that they are in favor of continuing to release hostages. They have not specified other demands, but they have made them to both Israel and the intermediaries. The US has made no secret of its’ hope that the pause in fighting could lead to a more permanent end to hostilities.
That leads us to step two. The US (and other western supporters of Israel) is viewed as a target for a media propaganda campaign. That campaign has been underway for a while. Here are a few parts that have already been revealed by Hamas actions:
Not all hostages are in the hands of Hamas. This claim has been accepted by most of the media as truth. It’s not. Nothing happens in Gaza that Hamas doesn’t want to happen. That includes activities by the Palestine Islamic Jihad. It’s convenient to have another organization to blame for purposes of “plausible deniability”. But the claim that Hamas does not control those groups is ridiculous. Hamas decided to violate one of the terms of the original release agreement calling for hostages from the same family to be released together. During trade 3 they released a 15 year old girl, but kept her mother. They said they “could not locate her”. The girl, herself, after release, said she had been held together with her mother for almost the entire time. Her mother had been taken elsewhere only on the day before the release of group 1 (2 days before her own release). Who took her mother away? A band of roving gypsies?.
Hamas representatives made accusations that Israel was not abiding by the terms of the release agreement. One item cited was that Israeli held prisoners were not being released according to the priorities desired by Hamas. The agreement says specifically that the prisoners to be released will be selected by the side holding them. This accusation is an open lie.
Another accusation was that aid was not being delivered to the northern part of the Gaza Strip (the part mostly under IDF occupation). But ALL humanitarian aid is being sent via the Egyptian controlled Rafah gate. Once it passes the gate, it must travel on roads under Hamas control. Israel had allowed the required number of trucks to go into Gaza. It was Hamas that was preventing it from reaching the north (if, indeed, such action really was taking place).
One last item (because this is already becoming overly long). Hamas allowed press photography of the release of group 3. Remember, Hamas maintains an iron grip on everything released to the press from inside Gaza. The footage of the release on the Hamas side shows masked terrorists helping hostages get in and out of vehicles, waving to them in a friendly manner, and even talking to them in English. The media broadcast those staged events without comment. I cannot believe this kind of behavior from the members of the same terrorist organization that sent other terrorists into Israeli villages with orders to kill everyone they found. Hamas is working hard to make over their public image in order to stay in control.
Wetherhorn 