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No, I addressed this. Yes, their response was to kill as many civilians as possible in Israel to start a conflict, not caring at all how it negatively affects the people they supposedly govern since they don't care about governing or civilians. This is because they are Islamists and religious extremists who can't be reasoned with, which is why they all have to die if any peace is possible. Any cease fire gives them exactly what they want. The only possible way they they "win" is because Israel isn't allowed to finish the job because of Western leftists crying about a cease fire that kicks the can down the road 5-10 years. They need to all be killed so their gambit fails and they realize if they pull this shit again they all die and their city will be destroyed. This would also be true if a secular Palestinian government was in power and Israel disappeared off the map.
The "trap" is to stop now and slowly turn the West against Israel while allowing Hamas to stay in power. This is what Hamas actually wants, not to be eradicated off this earth permanently.
This isn't really a good way of putting it. Hamas and the citizens of Gaza actually do read the international news and some of them even speak hebrew - which means that they understand what it means when Netanyahu holds up funny little maps that show Palestine not existing at all. Israel is very explicitly an ethnonationalist country that exists for the sake of the jewish people, and that has some very obvious connotations when they present maps which show Israel completely swallowing up Palestine!
Why should Hamas care about what happens to their population when doing nothing and accepting the status quo proposed by the Israelis means that they're all gone anyway? The Israelis are right there in the public eye letting them know that accepting a diplomatic solution means either their extermination or their permanent expulsion from the lands they've lived in for thousands of years. What's their motive to just give in and accept a slow death?
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Having dealt with Islamic extremists in person before, this is just not true. They aren't brainless automatons. They have a specific belief system, and can be negotiated and reasoned with. Ironically Israel proves this all the time when they negotiate with them. Just like everyone else they are subject to peer pressure, fear, and everything else. They are not intractable problem. Though they are a difficult one.
One of the biggest mistakes people tend to make is not understanding that.
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