With less than two weeks remaining before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his warning that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if the captives held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip are not returned before Trump is sworn in. He added that failure to do so “will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.” Trump has not elaborated on what exactly he is threatening, but several of his nominees for key cabinet positions and U.S. ambassador to Israel are advocates of a total war of annihilation against the Palestinians of both Gaza and the West Bank. Some of them have said there is no such thing as a Palestinian.
Over the past several weeks, international mediators from Egypt and Qatar have been meeting with Hamas, U.S., and Israeli officials in an effort to reach some form of an agreement on an exchange of captives and a cessation of Israel’s attacks against Gaza. While the U.S. and Israel have accused Hamas of hindering a deal, there is a well documented, yearlong pattern of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acting as the central saboteur of a ceasefire. ….more