Why there will never be peace with Hamas | WATCH

Haviv Rettig Gur has been one of the most vocal and incisive critics of Hamas since the October 7, 2023, attacks, framing the group not just as a military threat to Israel but as a profound moral, cultural, and strategic catastrophe for Palestinians themselves.

Gur argues that Hamas's core survival tactic is to maximize Palestinian hardship to fuel international outrage and pressure Israel into concessions, rather than building a viable society. He describes this as Hamas being "upset the death toll in Gaza isn't higher," because higher casualties amplify global anti-Israel sentiment, which Hamas exploits as leverage.

In a July 2025 piece for The Free Press, he writes: "Hamas’s fundamental plan for survival, their main strategic weapon against Israel, is Gaza’s humanitarian suffering. It’s the catalyst for international pressure on Israel. And it’s working."

He points out that Hamas embeds fighters and infrastructure in civilian areas, using Palestinians as human shields not out of necessity but to generate exactly this backlash, knowing Israel will face the diplomatic fallout while Hamas endures.

One of Gur's most poignant critiques is that Hamas embodies and amplifies Gaza's (and broader Palestinian society's) deepest flaws, dooming it to failure. In a February 2025 Substack essay, he calls Hamas "Gaza's inner cultural weakness made flesh and sent to walk the world," accusing it of "utter neglect of every other facet of Palestinian life."

He argues that the group's religious fanaticism, rooted in a rejectionist ideology that views compromise as heresy, has radicalized generations, with October 7 not a "sudden descent into barbarism" but "just another turn of the dial" in a long pattern of escalating violence.

In his "What Matters Now" podcast episode from January 2025, Gur laments that "Hamas’s very survival is its victory," predicting a tragic return to power where the "agents of destruction" rebuild just enough to launch the next war, leaving Gazans trapped in poverty and despair.

He contrasts this with Israel's peace overtures, noting how Hamas silences moderate Palestinian voices through murder and responds to negotiations with atrocities like killing Israeli children.

The Necessity of Defeating Hamas

Gur is unequivocal: Hamas must be fully dismantled for any hope of recovery in Gaza or peace. In a September 2024 YouTube interview, he states, "Until Hamas is gone, Gaza will be unable to recover after the war."

Israelis, he explains, remain "overwhelmingly supportive" of this goal despite the humanitarian toll, viewing Hamas's brutality (from sexual violence on October 7 to torturing its own people) as evidence that coexistence is impossible without its elimination.

Even in critiquing Israel's execution of the war, Gur maintains that the moral imperative is clear: Hamas's fanaticism, sending children to die for an unwinnable cause, makes surrender impossible, so total defeat is the only path. He warns that Hamas underestimates Israel's resolve post-October 7, but notes the group bets on eroding it through prolonged suffering.

Overall, Gur's takes on Hamas are unflinching: it's a nihilistic force that thrives on victimhood, rejects peace as betrayal, and uses Palestinians as pawns in a strategy of mutual destruction. While he does advocate for a two-state solution in the long term (as a way to separate Israelis from such threats), his Hamas analysis stands alone as a brutal, evidence-based indictment.