We are focusing today on the making of a news-making moment.<\/p>\n
It happened just a week ago. And we all saw it. But we may have missed what it really was. So let\u2019s take another look.<\/p>\n
In the last week of last month, one of Hamas\u2019 few remaining senior leaders agreed to be interviewed on CNN. As the cameras rolled, CNN\u2019s Jeremy Diamond reminded Hamas\u2019s Ghazi Hamad that his Palestinian health ministry says more than 65,000 Gaza Palestinians have been killed \u2013 and hundreds of thousands more displaced and homeless \u2013 as Israel retaliated massively for Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack in which Hamas\u2019 troops slaughtered, abused and kidnapped innocent Israeli civilians.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you accept any responsibility for triggering so much death and destruction?\u201d Diamond asked. And Hamad responded by predictably reciting the history of the Israeli-Gaza conflict. Then Hamad asked: \u201cNow why the world is so focused on October 7?\u201d<\/p>\n
It sounded like another ho-hum Middle East time waster. But then CNN\u2019s Diamond pushed to beyond the conventional Q&As. \u201cBefore October 7, Israel had never unleashed this level of death and destruction on Gaza before,\u201d CNN\u2019s correspondent followed up. \u201cHow can you look at me with a straight face and tell me that you accept no responsibility whatsoever for what has happened in the two years since?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hamas official replied that this was the \u201cfirst time that Palestinians have shown sacrifice in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.\u201d That\u2019s \u201csacrifice\u201d as in they got killed because of what Hamas had done.<\/p>\n
Diamond pressed on: \u201cWhat gives you the right to decide that Palestinian women and children should be sacrificed on the altar of your resistance? \u2026 And what gives you the right to decide it’s a price worth paying?\u201d<\/p>\n
Time out: That\u2019s the moment I was thinking that our regular readers may well remember that one week after that initial Oct. 7, 2023 attack \u2013 and in many columns ever since \u2013 I\u2019ve laid out evidence in which Hamas leaders seemed determined to goad Israel into mounting a massive \u2013 and excessive \u2013 retaliation. The world would see Israel killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. I quoted Hamas leaders who had civilian deaths called a noble \u201csacrifice\u201d that would finally turn the world against Israel.<\/p>\n
That was why Hamas dug all those tunnels and facilities beneath Gaza\u2019s civilian apartment buildings \u2013 to hide their troops’ living quarters, headquarters and arsenals. Hamas fighters planned to attack Israel, flee and hide beneath the Palestinian civilians they claimed to be protecting. The only way for Israel to kill their attackers would be to first kill the civilians living peacefully above their Hamas protectors.<\/p>\n
And lo, it came to pass. Israel killed Gaza civilians, blocked aid and food. World opinion \u2013 overwhelmingly backing Israel after Oct. 7 \u2013 turned overwhelmingly against Israel. Antisemitism is today rampant around the world.<\/p>\n
Hamas\u2019 human shield plan was a blatant war crime, according to Geneva conventions. Yet the United Nations, including Secretary General Antonio Guterres, failed to move vigorously to prevent Hamas’ underground plot that became their prelude to today\u2019s tragedy.<\/p>\n
Hamad told CNN: \u201cWe don’t want our people to be killed. Don’t put the problem on the shoulders of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
But CNN\u2019s correspondent rolled a video in which two Gazan civilians urged Hamas to \u201cstop gambling with us.\u201d And that was the moment Hamad shifted gears. \u201cI know people are suffering,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some people who blame Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNN\u2019s Diamond said: \u201cThese people \u2026 want Hamas to surrender\u2026and leave the Gaza Strip. What do you say to them?<\/p>\n
Hamad began by saying, \u201cWe will never surrender.\u201d But then he began talking about \u201cthe benefit of October 7\u201d \u2013 it was when, last week, UN delegates walked out on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he was delivering his address to a virtually empty General Assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople opened their eyes and looked to the atrocity, the brutality of Israel, and all of them, they condemned Israel,\u201d Hamad said. \u201cWe waited for this moment for 77 years. I think this is a golden moment for the world \u2026The history is changed now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it worth it?\u201d Diamond asked. He noted that Europe and many Arab nations now support President Donald Trump\u2019s Gaza peace plan and \u201cwant Hamas to disarm.<\/p>\n
“Are you willing to abandon power in Gaza and lay down your weapons?” Diamond asked.<\/p>\n
And the world heard Hamad say something no Hamas leader ever publicly said: \u201cLook, Hamas is part of the Palestinian fabric… We are ready to be out of the ruling of Gaza. We have no problem with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all Hamas officials are willing to repeat Hamad\u2019s position. At least not publicly, yet. But you may have just read tomorrow\u2019s breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are focusing today on the making of a news-making moment. It happened just a week ago. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453,96593],"class_list":["post-206809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wwub-reporters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}