Understanding Hamas

Why is Hamas engaging in never-ending indirect negotiations with Israel through international mediators, i.e. the US, Qatar and Egypt? The answer is simple: Hamas gains international legitimacy. Hamas is absolutely serious about not releasing the hostages unless Israel withdraws from Gaza and the way Hamas sees it, the international community supports Hamas and opposes Israel. The US threatens Israel with ”change in US policy”, while in fact the US policy has already changed from its original position of supporting the destruction of Hamas. Israel should in contrast demand that the US returns to its original position on the Gaza War. Israeli PM Netanyahu and pro-Israel organizations in the US are lobbying hard for US support for a Rafah operation. This will not succeed since it is US policy since 1973 to prevent Israel from emerging victorious in war. While Israel is negotiating in  good faith Hamas is not and has no intention of releasing the remaining hostages. What about a ceasefire? There is already in practice a limited ceasefire in place since the war has effectively ended. Israel entertains baseless hopes of convincing the US that Hamas’ refusal to come to an agreement short of complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will convince the US to support a Rafah operation. Instead there will be endless negotiations without conclusion as there were with Iran on the JCPOA. This makes sense for Hamas since as long as there are ”negotiations” will there not be a Rafah operation. What Jerusalem and major pro-Israel organizations in the United States in contrast need to do is to convince the US to change its longterm policy of preventing Israel from emerging victorious in war.