Legitimizing terror: the dangerous illusions of Kushner’s Gaza roadmap

What these gentlemen just don’t seem to understand is that Hamas is not a mismanaged real estate company looking for an exit strategy.

By Jonathan Pollard, World Israel News

The core tenet of modern counterterrorism has long been unyielding: democratic governments do not reward mass violence with diplomatic parity. Yet, Jared Kushner’s recent high-stakes meeting in Egypt with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya shatters this foundational principle.

In attempting to broker a 15-point peace roadmap under the banner of the Trump administration’s “Board of Peace,” Washington has crossed an extremely dangerous threshold. By treating a designated terrorist organization as a legitimate partner, this initiative creates an existential moral hazard and threatens the structural integrity of the U.S.-Israel alliance.

The fatal flaw of Kushner’s blueprint lies in its naive reliance on voluntary disarmament. The framework envisions a phased transition where Hamas surrenders its heavy weaponry to a technocratic National Committee in exchange for a complete military withdrawal from Gaza by Israel.

To believe that an organization rooted in genocidal anti-Semitism will willingly strip itself of its primary leverage is an illusion that ignores decades of regional history. For Hamas, ceasefires have never been steps toward permanent coexistence; they are tactical pauses used to regroup, rearm, and reinforce tunnel networks.

For example, in order to retain the organization’s small arms, Hamas has recently justified distributing thousands of machine guns to its members by designating them as “personal defense” weapons that fall outside their commitment to disarm. They did this, by the way, in broad daylight without a word of criticism from Mr. Kushner.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flat rejection of this roadmap is not mere political posturing ahead of the October elections. It is a calculated, necessary refusal to repeat past strategic failures that cost thousands of Israeli lives. For Mr. Netanyahu, demanding complete, verifiable disarmament before a single Israeli soldier withdraws is the only position compatible with long-term security.

If the Israel Defense Forces withdraw prematurely based on vague backroom promises, the security vacuum will inevitably be filled by the next generation of militancy, ensuring that Gaza remains a permanent launchpad for terror. We may disagree with the Prime Minister’s concept of the “day after,” but at least he’s being consistent with his flawed understanding of what Israel can get away with.

At its root, this transactional diplomacy being practiced by Trump, Kushner, and Witkoff treats deeply ideological conflict as a corporate real estate dispute to be managed via international stabilization forces and infrastructure committees.

What these gentlemen just don’t seem to understand is that Hamas is not a mismanaged real estate company looking for an exit strategy; it is a bloodthirsty ideological proxy network that is the Muslim equivalent of the Nazis. Offering them diplomatic recognition on the international stage as Kushner just did undercuts the sacrifice of those fighting them on the front lines and vindicates the original perpetrators of the October 7 atrocities.

True enduring stability in the Middle East cannot be built on empty pacts signed with terrorist entities. Rather than forcing a deeply flawed, corrupt, business-centric blueprint onto a resistant ally, Washington must pivot back to ironclad coordination with a new Israeli government that is dedicated to achieving a clear, decisive victory over its enemies.

What this means in this instance is that peace will only be achieved when the Israeli government orders the IDF to eliminate Hamas. After that, the government should rid Gaza of its brainwashed residents, and announce the annexation of the Strip. Assuming all this occurs, then and only then will the security of our southern border be assured. And Mr. Kushner can go back to being a failed real estate agent.