After former President Donald Trump’s election victory, a senior Hamas official issued a statement in which he called for the immediate cessation of Israel’s war against the group in Gaza and a strategy to achieve Palestinian statehood.
“The election of Trump as the 47th president of the USA is a private matter for the Americans,” the political bureau member and spokesperson for Hamas, Basem Naim, told The Washington Post.
Palestinians look forward to an immediate cessation of the aggression against our people, especially in Gaza, and look for assistance in achieving their legitimate rights of freedom, independence, and the establishment of their independent self-sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
“The blind support for the Zionist entity ‘Israel’ and its fascist government, at the expense of the future of our people and the security and stability of the region, must stop immediately,” according to him.
During his tenure in office, Trump developed a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently involved in a multi-front war against the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance. This conflict commenced with a large-scale Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023.
An Israeli official informed Newsweek that “the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel has been a bipartisan feature of American politics since the founding of the Jewish state” when contacted for comment.
Netanyahu congratulates Trump
The Israeli official stated, “We are certain that this will persist.” “Going forward, we look forward to a strong working relationship with his administration to bring about a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East.”
President Joe Biden and Netanyahu disagreed regarding the war’s progression despite substantial U.S. military assistance. Consequently, Netanyahu was the first to congratulate Trump on “history’s greatest comeback.”
In his statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu declared, “Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.”
Afterward, Netanyahu conversed with Trump. The Israeli side characterized the conversation as a “warm and cordial” exchange in which the two “agreed to work together for Israel’s security and also discussed the Iranian threat.”
The Israel-Hamas war, which has since expanded to include an Israeli air and land offensive against the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, strikes from other Axis of Resistance factions in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and even direct exchanges of strikes between Israel and Iran, has served as a polarizing foreign policy issue in the United States.
Biden has been accused by Israel supporters of not doing enough to aid the U.S. ally and by pro-Palestinian factions of failing to sufficiently rein in Netanyahu, despite his continued provision of military assistance to Israel and his advocacy for greater safeguards to mitigate civilian harm.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign largely mirrored the Biden administration’s stance, calling for peace and expressing empathy for the plight of civilians entangled in the conflict. However, she rejected any demands to withhold arms sales to Israel.
Hamas Issues Statement
Additionally, Hamas issued a statement on Wednesday that urged the United States to “cease providing military support and political cover to the Zionist entity and to recognize the legitimate rights of our people.” The statement also called for an end to Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.
“The American president-elect is required to listen to the voices that have been raised from American society itself for more than a year regarding the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip,” according to the statement, “rejecting the occupation and genocide, and objecting to support and bias toward the Zionist entity.”
On Wednesday, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority, congratulated Trump on his election victory. Abbas is the leader of the West Bank-based government that competes with Hamas, which is based in Gaza.
The Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA) released a statement in which Abbas expressed “his aspiration to collaborate with President Trump to promote peace and security in the region” and underscored “the dedication of our people to the pursuit of statehood, self-determination, and freedom in compliance with international law.”
Abbas was reported to have said, “We will remain steadfast in our commitment to peace,” and we are confident that under your leadership, the United States will support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
While in office, both Hamas and Abbas had frequently denounced Trump’s Middle East policies, such as his 2018 decision to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem and his 2020 proposal to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Abraham Accords
The proposal, which was widely referred to as the “deal of the century,” would have conferred Israel control over occupied areas along the Jordanian border and internationally unrecognized Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions would be disarmed, Palestinians would acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, refrain from participating in any international organizations without Israeli consent, and receive the right to access international investments and a portion of the desert territory along the Israel-Egypt border.
In addition, the proposition proposed the construction of a tunnel connecting Gaza and the West Bank, one of its most ambitious moves.
Even though the Arab world did not support the plan, Trump successfully oversaw the Abraham Accords later that year, establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
The U.S. withdrawal from a multilateral nuclear agreement in 2018 and the U.S. killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force chief Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020 were also significant factors in the sharp increase in tensions between Washington and Tehran that Trump oversaw.
The Republican leader has since accused Biden and Harris of being too lenient toward Iran and has consistently maintained that the war in Hamas would not have occurred under his presidency. In the meantime, Trump has accused his Democratic opponents of attempting to incite a more extensive conflict in the Middle East, a course of action that he has pledged to avoid.
Trump stated during his election night victory speech, “We desire a robust and capable military, and we would prefer not to employ it.” He also said, “You are aware that we did not experience any wars for four years.” There were no conflicts. Except for the fact that we defeated ISIS, we did so in record time.
“They predicted that he would initiate a conflict.” “I will not initiate a war,” Trump declared in the early hours of Wednesday. “I’m going to stop wars.”
Source: Newsweek
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