The art of the deal, as defined by a man who has spent a lifetime making deals, is to offer your opponent something he really wants, or threaten him with something he really fears. When President Trump wanted to get trade concessions from various countries, he threatened them with tariffs that would have virtually excluded them from the US market, the biggest market in the world. He got the concessions he wanted.
In dealing with Hamas we can’t offer them what they want, which is to wipe Israel off the map, so we must threaten them with something they really fear. Killing Gazans doesn’t frighten them, in fact they welcome civilian deaths; it helps their propaganda, especially given the idiotic cooperation they get from the western media. However permanently losing control over land that has previously been under Moslem rule, is a serious threat. In the Moslem world this would cause them to lose all credibility.
This is why the article by Douglas Altabef makes so much sense. For Israel it’s a win-win strategy; either we get all the remaining hostages back, with nothing in exchange, or we get to keep Gaza as part of Israel, we might even get both!
The UN won’t like it and the Europeans will go into convulsions, but so what. We will allow them to rebuild Gaza. After passing a few resolutions and spending a few billion dollars, they’ll lose interest.
stephenscohen.com 