Lindsey Graham was right about Hamas

OPINION:

There is “no pathway forward to peace as long as Hamas has their arms and they intend to stay in power,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in December regarding the troubled implementation of the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas peace plan.

One day after the senator’s sudden death on July 11, his point that progress in the Gaza Strip cannot coexist with an armed Hamas was so painfully obvious that even senior United Nations officials could no longer ignore it.

“I strongly condemn the recent obstruction of humanitarian operations in Gaza by the de facto authorities, which endangered humanitarian personnel, intimidated workers delivering lifesaving food assistance and disrupted lifesaving humanitarian operations,” Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, blasted Hamas in a July 12 statement that was largely ignored by the international press.

The next day, the European Union announced contributions of $1 billion to “early recovery” in the coastal territory, including major projects tackling waste and water management. “But to do that, we need disarmament of Hamas,” European Union Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica remarked.

Ms. Suica’s statement generated as much media interest as Mr. Alakbarov’s; that is to say, hardly any.

Although most media outlets ignored the array of international sources citing Hamas’ refusal to disarm as the No. 1 obstacle to progress in the war-torn territory, Reuters had a different approach.

“Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire,” the news agency selectively reported in a July 7 article about the latest violence in the territory. “Nikolay Mladenov, U.S. President Donald Trump’s appointed Board of Peace envoy to Gaza, has said both sides have violated the agreement.”

Still, Mr. Mladenov did not equally charge “both sides” with violations. In his May 13 press conference, he spent about 30 minutes clearly articulating that the 20-point plan for Gaza’s future relies on Hamas’ disarmament.

Mr. Mladenov repeatedly stressed that the goal is to engineer a new, hopeful future. He called Hamas’ disarmament “the basis for this whole framework.”

“One authority, one law, one weapon,” he said. This is a Palestinian principle. It is, in fact, a universal principle of good governance. No recovery process anywhere in the world has ever succeeded while parallel armed structures continue to operate outside a legitimate transitional authority. None.”

He continued: “You cannot build a future with armed groups running the streets, hiding in tunnels, and stockpiling weapons. You cannot deliver reconstruction with militias on every corner.”

That is precisely the hard reality that the United Nations’ Mr. Alakbarov condemned. Hamas “forcibly entered the Abu Rashid food distribution point in Jabalia,” along with a World Food Program warehouse, he said, where the terrorists “reportedly assaulted two truck drivers who were delivering humanitarian supplies.”

“These incidents are not isolated,” he acknowledged.

Unlike Reuters, The Associated Press reported with rare clarity that although Mr. Mladenov noted violations on both sides, he also said the “ceasefire hinges on Hamas’ disarmament,” as the headline succinctly stated.

Mr. Mladenov “repeatedly cited the disarmament issue as a central sticking point, saying Hamas’ obligation to give up its arsenal is ‘not negotiable’ and that progress on all other issues — including reconstruction, Israeli troop withdrawals and the establishment of a new Palestinian government — was being held up,” AP reported.

Thus, Reuters lifted a small, albeit important, side note from Mr. Mladenov’s remarks and inflated it, falsely casting it as his main message. Meanwhile, it ignored his primary argument.

Reuters’ curated five-minute video excerpt of Mr. Mladenov’s press conference highlights his statement about unspecified daily violations, including deadly incidents in which Palestinian civilians were killed. The spliced clip ignores the crux of the half-hour presentation — Mr. Mladenov’s argument that all steps forward depend first and foremost on Hamas disarming in accordance with the ceasefire.

Despite the messenger’s untimely demise and media’s best efforts to deflect, Mr. Graham’s message about the fundamental need to disarm Hamas is impossible to bury. Even all the vast rubble of the devastated Gaza Strip cannot hide this immutable obstacle to peace.

• Tamar Sternthal is director of media research and analysis for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis and director of the organization’s Israel office.