Arabic → English transcript

I do not think Israel has any desire to destroy Hamas completely.

At least that is what is being declared, I mean.

Yeah. I think Hamas— Israel has a viewpoint, especially Netanyahu’s administration,

his current government.

If it eliminated Hamas completely and removed it from what remains of Gaza,

then the Palestinian Authority would become its only option to take over Gaza.

If the Palestinian Authority regained Gaza after that long absence,

then the possibility of a Palestinian state would be closer.

With Hamas present— Hamas has been operating for 17 years— that is, as a spoiler

of the story of territorial

unity between the West Bank and Gaza.

And what happened is, there ended up being two Palestinian states,

instead of there being a Palestinian state and an Israeli state.

So, very unfortunately, Hamas caused that outcome.

It is in the Israelis’ interest to keep Hamas. It caused the obstruction.

It is the one that obstructed it, because Hamas, in the end,

when it insisted on Gaza and expelled the Palestinian Authority at the time,

and it became the one controlling the area, and it behaved

in a way that keeps the Israelis always in a state of bearing arms against

the Palestinians. So in the end, you are talking about a torn Palestinian reality.

How are you going to establish a Palestinian state if Hamas and the

Authority can’t even agree?

What does that even mean? It makes no sense. The whole world is mocking you.