Trump: Finishing off Hamas

Gershon Baskin

July 26, 2025

 President Trump is now telling Netanyahu to finish off Hamas – to get the job done.   What does that mean? Before Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, Trump was telling the media and Netanyahu to finish the war, but that was prior to Netanyahu apparently convincing Trump to allow Israel to continue the war (the tail wagging the dog). The US-supported negotiations in Doha for a ceasefire failed primarily because Israel wants to continue the war while Hamas wants to end the war. The goals of the two sides are diametrically opposed and therefore, the Hamas parameters of the proposed ceasefire are unacceptable to Israel.  Hamas is blamed because they want Israel out of Gaza. Hamas is blamed because they want aid to flow into Gaza uninhibited.  Of course, Israel says that Hamas wants all of that to retake control over Gaza, to rebuild their army, and to refinance themselves by stealing the aid and selling it. All of that might true because both the Palestinian Authority who have primary responsibility to determine the governance of Gaza instead of Hamas is not doing what it needs to do, and Israel does not want any other legitimate Palestinian form of governance in Gaza so that Israel can continue to do what it is doing – fighting a war and totally destroying Gaza, which has no legitimacy.  

Out of the frustration from the failure of the negotiations, Trump now comes up with a page from the play book of the likes of Ben Gvir and Smootrich – finish off Hamas! Israel has already wiped-out Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Rafah, Khan Yunis, most of Gaza city and Jabalia, and more, and now they are wiping out Deir el Balah and Nusseirat. Almost nothing of Gaza is left – creating an uninhabitable land for more than 2.2 million people. Is this the materialization of the Trump-Israeli settlers-Evangelical Christian-Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smootrich vision of the Gaza Riviera? This Israeli vision of Gaza without Palestinians who will be forced to leave Gaza because it is impossible to live there is a war crime and then resettled by Jews. This is a war crime that is piled on the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel has been committing for many months now. 

It is beyond my ability as a Jew not to feel physical pain when having to call out Israel for acts of genocide. The “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” was written in 1948 in the very dark shadows of the Holocaust. Many Jews were involved in the drafting of that Convention. What Israel is doing in Gaza is not the Holocaust – there are many differences, but what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. Two of the most important and respected Israeli Holocaust scholars have come out in public calling it genocide (Prof. Alex Goldberg and Prof. Omer Bartov). Israeli leaders – the Prime Minister, the ministers of the government, almost all Members of Knesset and most Israelis reject the accusation of genocide. They also claim that the real starvation in Gaza is fake news and Ai generated pictures of starving children are all over the social media. People like me who call it out for what it really is are being accused of treason, as mouth pieces for Hamas and/or as self-hating Jews.   They can call me all the names that they want, I will not be intimidated and I will not stop speaking the truth. It is unfortunate that we need to wait for history to judge us before we take responsibly for the crimes that we are committing.  The rest of the world is not waiting. And while there is antisemitism among those who lay criticism at Israel, most of the critics and criticism is right and justified and it is too bad that it has so little impact on the Israeli government and on the people of Israel.  With all of this said, I do not want to for even one minute excuse Hamas for the war crimes and crimes against humanity and against their own people that they are responsible for. I agree with President Trump that Hamas needs to be finished – but the difference is that I believe it is the responsibility of the Palestinian people to finish off Hamas which can best be done in the ballot box.