Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal: Israel’s neo-conditional surrender - opinion

On May 7, 1945, at Rheims, France, the German High Command instructed its officers to sign an unconditional surrender to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces and the Russian Army.

Four months later, on September 2, 1945, representatives of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters signed at Tokyo Bay their acceptance of the Allied Powers’ provisions for an unconditional surrender.

After mass destruction of European cities, ports, and production centers, including fire bombings, the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities, and the estimated deaths of 15 million soldiers and 38 million civilians – among them the 6 million Jewish victims of a Nazi-initiated industrial Holocaust – World War Two ended.

The Allied forces occupied and administered Japan for seven more years until April 28, 1952. Likewise, Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies until the establishment of West Germany in May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, the Nazi German state was stripped of its sovereignty and former status as a state.

As of this moment, Israel has accepted the terms of a ceasefire with the terrorist forces of Gaza in which hostilities have come to a temporary halt to enable the release of its hostages, those alive and deceased. For its part, over 1600 Palestinians who had engaged in violent actions, including bus bombings, stabbings, and shootings, resulting in the murders of many dozens, are being freed from Israeli prisons.

A Hamas terrorist stands on top of a Red Cross vehicle during the release of three Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip, January 19, 2025. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X, SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)

Hamas has not been defeated

There is no doubt that Hamas and the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip have not been defeated and have certainly not surrendered, conditionally or unconditionally.

As reported from Egypt, approximately 300 aid trucks are already en route to the Al-Auja and Kerem Shalom crossings. Hundreds of additional trucks that humanitarian groups within Gaza have either neglected or otherwise refused to collect have been sitting at the crossings for weeks.

Whether due to pressure from US President Donald Trump, conveyed by his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, or reacting to the pressures from within Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deemed the present time as proper for the deal. In any case, all eyes need to be on the immediate and close future.

On the one hand, the incoming administration appears staffed with very pro-Israel appointments, from the secretaries of Defense and State to the United Nations’ US ambassador, to Israel’s American ambassador, and more.

On the other hand, there are others, like Witkoff.

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In 2023, Witkoff managed to sell a property he owned, Manhattan’s Park Lane Hotel, to the Qatari Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, for $623 million. Also taking a stake was Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. And while politics makes for strange bedfellows, money makes for stranger ones.

Stemming from this situation is the need to shore up and deepen pro-Israel allies in Congress and, as the anti-BDS legislation has proven, in state legislatures, too. A welcome move is that of Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York and Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. They have begun the adoption of the “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act.”

That Act’s purpose is to assure that in all official government materials, “the United States Government should refer to the land annexed by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War by its historical names of Judea and Samaria. Moreover, it “should no longer use the term ‘West Bank’ in official government materials.”

Had I been consulted, I would have suggested the term “annexation” be replaced with “administered,” but perhaps that will be done in a later stage of the legislative process.

The Act is an indication that the pro-Palestine supporters will no longer be able to wield one of the most powerful weapons of public diplomacy they have, which is dominating the narrative, one they successfully corrupted and misrepresented.

Let us return to the subject of Gaza.

The deepening connection with Qatar these past few years needs to set off some alarm bells. Middle East Media Research Institute’s Yigal Carmon is very critical of its “corrosive influence,” in his words, on Western society.

Through its financial might, investments in American business sectors, and funding to universities and cultural institutions, Qatar is pushing a campaign to weaken Western powers and increase Islamic influence even as it benefits economically.

If Trump’s close advisers are also involved, supervision must be in place.

Of course, hearing that Trump may be contemplating a temporary transfer of Gaza’s population to Indonesia while reconstruction is accomplished (as though Hamas will not initiate another round of fighting only to destroy Gaza once again) is an unexpected move, even if it remains only an idea. In any case, it would be a better location than Greenland.

Without being privy to that Shabbat conference Netanyahu conducted with Trump’s envoy Witkoff prior to Israel’s acceptance of the ceasefire terms, it is assumed that Israel’s prime minister felt it was in Israel’s best interests, currently and in the future.

After all, incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz said to CBS that if Hamas reneges on the Gaza hostage-ceasfire deal, the United States will support Israel “in doing what it has to do.” He added that “Hamas will never govern Gaza. That is completely unacceptable.”

If those were some of the conditions for the deal, then perhaps Israel, if thwarted in achieving an unconditional surrender in Gaza, can ultimately gain from a neo-conditional surrender. To do better next time, however, will depend on a better military command.

The new commander-in-chief that will be appointed and fellow generals must be more committed to a victory, one in the field that permits Israel a victory at the diplomatic table.

The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.