Why should Hamas agree to Witkoff's proposal?

Jihad Harb

Steve Witkoff's latest or revised proposal is flawed and does not meet the Palestinians' goals of ending the Israeli government's war of extermination against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. This is an indisputable fact. However, it is said that the traps of politics are more rugged than the roads and battles on the ground, or the difficulty of military operations. Or, as Islamists say, necessity justifies prohibitions. Economists say that maximizing benefits and minimizing losses. Politicians say that getting out with the least losses is part of political cunning or political maneuvering.

In my opinion, Hamas should accept the proposal of US envoy Steve Witkoff, which is inherently biased towards the demands of the extremist Israeli government. This comes at a time when the possibility of military maneuver on the ground is declining and the popular demand for an end to the war of starvation, even if only temporarily, is present. Hamas should also accept the proposal with a deep understanding of the Israeli government's maneuvering objectives and the US administration's attempt to position Hamas as a rejectionist movement and bear responsibility for this before the international community and, more importantly, before the Palestinian people.

Hamas must conduct a thorough reading not only of the texts included in the proposal, as important as they are, whether in terms of technical, procedural, and technical issues, or the available guarantees. More important, however, is a political reading of the context surrounding the Witkoff proposal. The recent shifts we have witnessed at the European level in the statements and decisions of some European parliaments and governments, as well as the European Parliament in Brussels, are significant in clearly changing the position on Israel, both regarding the war of extermination and the political process related to the issue of statehood. Similarly, developments on the path to implementing the two-state solution through the efforts led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee to achieve a breakthrough on this path at the New York conference next month, and the international momentum accompanying these efforts and the conference, which render Israel in necessary international isolation.

While reading the transformations taking place in the Israeli political arena is important in monitoring the shift in the positions of senior politicians and former military personnel, some of whom have described the war on Gaza or certain actions therein as a war crime, on the one hand, and on the Israeli street, with a shift to demanding an end to the war, as this is a political war for Netanyahu's survival, not just to return the prisoners. Not to mention the possibility of the most extremist government coalition in Israel's history disintegrating with the withdrawal of both the Jewish Power party (Ben Gvir) and the Religious Zionism party (Smotrich), which could mean early elections. Most likely, this fascist right-wing alliance will not return to power, ending Netanyahu's Kahanist era.

Netanyahu's approval of Witkoff's amended proposal was partly intended to avoid a clash with US President Donald Trump, who had lost some of his influence or charm over the US administration, particularly on Middle East issues such as the negotiations with Iran, the agreement with the Houthi group in Yemen, the new regime in Syria, and the agreements signed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar regarding the development of defense forces, the peaceful nuclear program, and investment in high-tech and artificial intelligence. This was done to circumvent the imposition of the Abraham Accords on Arab states as a condition for this, or rather to exclude Israel's approval of US plans for action in the region.

Turning the challenge into an opportunity is possible in this proposal. Hamas may raise some reservations and announce some of the risks inherent in it, requesting additional guarantees for the victims of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, which is required. On the other hand, if this warrior's rest occurs, it is an opportunity to effect a shift in the internal Palestinian path and move forward with the Egyptian plan, which has become an Arab-Islamic plan after its adoption by the Arab Summit "Emergency Palestine Summit" on March 4, 2025, held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The time has come to adopt the path of national unity and end the division, to spare the Palestinian people further hardship, injustice, killing, hunger and pain, and to stand up against the occupation policies that are racing against time to prevent the Palestinian people from exercising their right to self-determination and the establishment of their future state in the future, effectively abolishing it.