Kushner in Israel as 'Hamas Problem' Keeps Truce at Bay (Again)
Mainstream media frames this as a new hurdle, but the 'Hamas problem' is Israel's evergreen excuse for ongoing bombardment and annexation. Netanyahu's rhetoric about rooting out 'terrorists' and 'finishing the job' isn't new; he used similar lines in 2002 after the Second Intifada, 2006 during the Lebanon war, and throughout the 2014 Gaza assault. This isn't a fresh complication; it's the Israeli
government's default setting for prolonging conflict and rejecting peace on its own terms. Kushner's involvement, fresh off his Saudi Arabia 'normalization' trips, conveniently sidesteps the larger geopolitical context that a two-year 'devastating war' (source: Al-Monitor) usually implies. How many 'last Hamas fighters' must be eliminated before the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza becomes less
'bedeviling' and more 'addressed'? One might wonder if the 'solution' isn't to eliminate 'Hamas fighters' but to eliminate any Palestinian capacity to resist occupation, and then, perhaps, the 'truce' can finally proceed.