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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/30/arab-world-is-no-longer-reticent-about-hamas-threat/
Even the Arab World Is No Longer Reticent about the Threat of Hamas
(Telegraph-UK) Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp - The Arab League on Tuesday backed a declaration calling for Hamas to lay down its arms and end its rule in Gaza. In fact, most Arab countries have been on Israel's side and against Hamas since the start of the war. They recognize the dangers posed to their own countries by Hamas, a proxy of Iran and offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which represent existential threats to them. We saw what happened when a two-state solution was tried in Gaza. The whole place was turned by Islamic jihadists into an engine of war and resulted in the horrors of Oct. 7. Is it reasonable to expect Jerusalem to repeat such a devastatingly failed experiment and extend it into the West Bank where the risks are far greater? When so many lives are at stake and Israel's very existence is under threat, hoping for the best is not going to cut it. The Israel-Palestinian conflict is not about land or Arab self-determination, it's a religious war to annihilate the Jewish state and always has been. British Prime Minister Starmer's proposal to recognize a non-existent state will harden Palestinian resolve against Israel and encourage Hamas to keep fighting. Following Starmer's proposal, a senior Hamas official wrote: "International support for Palestinian self-determination shows we are moving in the right direction....Victory and liberation are closer than we expected." The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.