Holding On

As we move into Day 746 of the war in Israel the current deal that’s seen all 20 live hostages and slowly seeing the bodies of hostages going back to Israel so that’s good news. And I don’t want anyone to think I’m raining on the parade here, but the hard part is coming and I simply don’t trust Hamas at all. And it appears that the Trump administration sees trouble ahead as they send VP Vance to Israel to try and assure everyone the deal will hold as seen in a report from the Jewish News Syndicate:

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is “very optimistic” that the White House-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip will hold, the former Ohio senator said during a press conference in Israel on Tuesday.

“What we’ve seen in the past week gives me great optimism that the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said, on the day after a truce resumed in the Palestinian enclave following Hamas’s attacks on Israeli troops and the response by the Jewish state.

Vance wants us to believe that the trip has nothing to do with Hamas not honoring their side of the bargain over and over again, but regardless, he’s there now assessing the deal:

The vice president, who said as recently as a few days ago that he wasn’t sure if he was going to visit Israel, said his stop there had nothing to do with events of the past 24 hours and had been planned for months. He said that he “wanted to check in on things” and “see how things were going and put some eyes on it.”

He said that more effort is needed for things to work and wasn’t ready to say it was a done deal:

Maintaining the ceasefire will require “constant effort” and supervision, according to Vance.

“Can I say with 100% certainty that it’s going to work? No, but you don’t do difficult things by only doing what’s 100% certain,” he told reporters. “You do things by trying.”

He seemed to give Hamas the benefit of the doubt on the bodies of hostages being turned over:

The vice president said that everyone is focused on liberating the bodies of hostages “to their families so they can get a proper burial.” But that’s going to be hard, he said, because “some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble.”

The peace deal calls on Hamas to return every hostage, both living and dead. The terror group has returned all of the hostages whom it says are alive. It has returned some of the bodies of hostages whom it killed.

I still believe that Hamas is slow rolling things so it can reconstitute itself and reassert control over Gaza.

Will They Disarm?

The US VP did have strong words for Hamas if they don’t continue to honor the deal:

Vance echoed U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement about the repercussions if Hamas doesn’t cooperate with the agreement.

“Hamas is going to be obliterated,” the vice president said.

Vance was hesitant to put a hard deadline for Hamas surrendering their weapons:

Asked how much time Hamas has to disarm—another requirement of the agreement—Vance declined to put “an explicit deadline on it.”

“A lot of this stuff is unpredictable,” he said. One Gaza region is “relatively safe” while another is “incredibly dangerous,” according to Vance.

And why is that true? Hamas isn’t stopping the fighting while Israel moves away from those areas. Vance says that the issue is that an international enforcement army isn’t ready yet:

“Part of ensuring that we get to a durable peace is to broaden the scope of the area that’s safe, and the international security force is a big part of that,” he said. “We don’t yet have the international security force set up. That’s something we’re working toward.”

The VP, who says he is a Christian probably should add knowing prophecy to his acumen of the terrorists. Hamas has no history of playing nice either. It’s in their charter to annihilate the nation of Israel and kill all Jews. And they keep saying they will never surrender so something has to give here. Vance went on to give this optimistic view of the region:

“A lot of this work is very hard. It’s never been done before, and in order for us to give it a chance to succeed, we’ve got to be a little bit flexible,” he said. “If we get this right, I really do think it’s going to be a domino that will lead to peace all across the region.”

He says that flexibility is key. What he needs to understand is that Hamas only bends when it helps them. And they don’t bend much long term at all. Vance did go out of his way to say that the US won’t be keeping the place safe with US soldiers on the ground:

Vance said he doesn’t know what the “ultimate authority in Gaza” will look like; however, the governance structure will be “very flexible” for the future. Long-term governance of Gaza will only occur after security is established, he said. He stressed that there won’t be U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.

“What we can do is provide some useful coordination,” Vance said.

The US VP sees Turkey as a helpful partner in spite of their caustic language about Israel and their ardent support of Hamas:

Despite Israeli concern about Turkey’s involvement, Vance said that the country has a “constructive role” to play. Israel will decide what foreign troops are involved, he added.

He said that only putting the past behind them will work:

“No one who has been a party in this conflict can look in the past and not point at something they don’t like or disagree with,” he said. “The way that we’re going to get to peace is to focus on the future.”

“Everybody here is very willing to do that,” he added.

If he means finally recognizing that Israel has a right to live as a nation and that they need to leave their history of hating them behind I agree. Oh and stop killing them and launching weapons at them would help, too. Who is willing to do that WP Vance? It certainly isn’t Hamas, at least not yet. You can talk about flexibility and willingness all you like. The only language Hamas understands is strength. Military strength to be specific. Diplomacy only enables them to get ready for the next October 7th which they fully intend to do. To have peace you must exterminate the threat they pose.