The two jobs Trump needs to complete – opinion

While President Trump deserves credit for seeking peace, he is making a fundamental mistake if he believes that Islamist terrorist organizations such as Hamas can be talked into abandoning their jihadist ideology.

By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute

More than three years after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre, the Iran-backed terrorist group is still demonstrating that it has no intention of relinquishing its grip on the Gaza Strip.

The latest evidence came during the funeral of Arafat al-Areer, a Hamas terrorist killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Videos circulating on social media on October 31 and November 1 showed large crowds attending the funeral procession, accompanied by dozens of armed men openly displaying their weapons and firing into the air.

These were not clandestine meetings of underground terrorist cells. The gunmen appeared openly in the streets, clearly with little concern about concealing their identities or weapons.

The size of the funeral was also revealing. The footage showed hundreds of people taking part in the procession.

The presence of such a large crowd raises serious questions about Hamas’s ability to mobilize people, display its symbols, and project its power in public.

More importantly, the scenes raise questions that the international community should be answering: **** What happened to the promised demilitarization of the Gaza Strip?

What happened to the negotiations to disarm Hamas? Weren’t we told that Hamas had agreed to surrender its weapons?

What happened to the “roadmap” of President Donald J. Trump’s Board of Peace, which was supposed to end Hamas’s military and political control of the Gaza Strip?

On July 30, 2026, US President Donald J. Trump announced that the Board of Peace had reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

The announcement was presented as a major breakthrough in implementing the president’s 20-point peace plan.

While President Trump deserves credit for seeking peace, he is making a fundamental mistake if he believes that Islamist terrorist organizations such as Hamas can be talked into abandoning their jihadist ideology, surrendering their weapons, and giving up their commitment to Israel’s destruction.

The “roadmap” envisaged a phased process under which Hamas and other factions would relinquish their weapons; civilian and security responsibilities would be transferred to a Palestinian administrative committee, and an international verification mechanism would supervise implementation.

The stated objective was a Gaza governed according to the principle of one authority, one law, and one weapon.

The Board of Peace’s “roadmap” was explicit: Hamas was not supposed to retain either its military capabilities or its role in governing the Gaza Strip.

Yet the scenes from the funeral suggest that the distance between diplomatic declarations and reality still remains vast.

There is a difference between agreeing to a document and actually implementing it. Hamas’s purported acceptance of a “roadmap” is not the same as surrendering its weapons, dismantling its military infrastructure, or giving up control of the population.

The Board of Peace should explain what concrete steps have been taken to verify that Hamas is disarming. How many weapons have been surrendered? How many weapons depots have been dismantled?

What has happened to the tunnels and military production facilities? Who is monitoring Hamas’s armed operatives? Who is ensuring that the terrorist group does not continue to exercise authority behind the scenes?

The public appearance of armed terrorists at a funeral is a reminder that Hamas members remain visible and organized in the Gaza Strip.

In July 2026, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported that Hamas had been using funerals for its military operatives as demonstrations of its continued presence.

According to the report, the processions featured armed men, Hamas flags, and jihadist slogans, with the declared objective of conveying that the terrorist group remained active, organized, and undefeated despite military pressure and Israeli and American plans for the Gaza Strip.

The Iranian regime has a direct interest in preventing Hamas from disappearing as an armed organization. Tehran has spent decades providing Hamas with financial and military assistance, weapons expertise, and training.

For Iran, Hamas is not simply another Palestinian political movement.

It is part of the network of armed groups that the Iranian regime has cultivated to threaten Israel and advance its regional objectives, which include exporting the Islamic Revolution to the entire Middle East and beyond (here, here and here).

To Iran, allowing Hamas to surrender its weapons and become an ordinary political movement would mean losing an important instrument of Iranian influence on Israel’s southern border.

Hamas, meanwhile, has every reason to preserve its military infrastructure and its ability to intimidate the population.

Its leaders understand that surrendering their weapons would mean surrendering the principal instrument through which they have maintained their power in the Gaza Strip since violently seizing control of the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

The United States and the members of the Board of Peace need to stop treating Hamas’s declarations as a substitute for action.

They should demand measurable, independently verified progress toward the complete dismantling of Hamas’s military wing and governing structures.

There must be clear deadlines, transparent reporting, and immediate consequences for noncompliance.

This requirement applies equally to the countries that have played central roles in mediating and supporting the Gaza arrangements, including Qatar and Turkey, as well as other international partners.

Their responsibility should not end with securing Hamas’s signature on a document. They must help ensure that the commitments are actually implemented.

Given Qatar’s and Turkey’s long record of hosting Hamas leaders and providing the terrorist organization with political and financial support, there is little reason to expect either country to put genuine pressure on Hamas to dismantle its military and political infrastructure.

The United States needs to reassess its policy toward Gaza and Iran. Peace arrangements that leave Hamas and Iran armed, organized, and capable of rebuilding their military infrastructures are not lasting peace arrangements.

It is a temporary pause that allows both Hamas and Iran to prepare for more massacres against Israel and everyone else.

Israel cannot be expected to accept the permanent presence of armed terrorist organizations, such as Hamas or its patron, Iran, committed to its destruction just because international diplomats prefer to believe that another “deal” will somehow solve the problem.

If the Board of Peace and its international partners cannot secure genuine disarmament, they must acknowledge that their approach has failed and reconsider their options.

Israel cannot be expected to wait indefinitely while Hamas rebuilds a war machine.

There can be no more fake “Munich, the Sequel” deals that only one side, the US, has any intention of keeping. President Trump urgently needs to finish two of these jobs.

If he does, he will go down in history as the greatest president ever. The first is to ensure that the Gaza Strip—for both the people there and the entire region—is neutralized from terror forever.

The second, as he originally promised, is to liberate the Iranian people—and again the entire region—from a catastrophic regime.

Donald TrumpGazaIran