Surely, no armed struggle has proven as intractable and seemingly unsolvable as the Middle East conflict. Put simply, this struggle can be seen as one between Muslim invaders and others in the region—either indigenous peoples, such as Jews, or other “invaders,” mostly Westerners. Among Islamists, this intolerance of the “other” is fanatical, driven by Muslim religious doctrine.
No wonder peacemaking efforts in the region have generally been led by Westerners, whose culture supplies them near bottomless faith in the power of fair play and reconciliation. No wonder, either, that these efforts have been insistently thwarted by radical Islamist forces, who view all peace negotiations as frankly pointless or merely as steps in the process of reconquering their Allah-granted territory.
These conditions help explain why Western peacemakers continue to encounter frustrating roadblocks as they attempt to resolve current conflicts in Gaza and Iran. Led by the United States, the West keeps offering generous solutions to soundly defeated Muslims, who confound them by refusing all overtures. Both enemies simply prefer to continue their fruitless fight.
The challenge of pacifying Gaza’s soundly thrashed Hamas provides an objective lesson in how Western diplomats end up looking like naive patsies when they apply transactional logic to obsessed jihadists. Since its inception just nine months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza has secured commitments of more than $17 billion from Middle East, European and North American nations for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the devastated, impoverished coastal strip.
Only one condition obstructs the release of redevelopment funds and alleviation of Gaza’s hunger and homelessness—disarmament of Hamas, the terror group that started the current war three years ago. Unfortunately, for Gazan Palestinians, Hamas refuses to disarm, apparently believing their “resistance” against Israel’s existence is more important than the suffering of their people.
Likewise, Washington has tried for months to end its war against Iran, but despite our enemy losing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and military assets, the mullahs remain unbowed. Their tactic is one Muslims have used successfully for centuries—stalling for time and agreeing to temporary pauses in hostilities to allow their forces to regain strength and attack anew.
Muslim land can never be surrendered to “infidels.”
Radical Islamists believe that once a land has been conquered and subjugated by Islam, it can never be surrendered to “infidel” non-Muslims. For example, since “Palestine” was colonized in the seventh century C.E. by Muslim forces, it is forbidden to surrender it to the Jews.
This principle is written in the Hamas charter, which reads: “The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [bequest] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. … It, or any part of it, should not be given up.”
Muslims have waged incessant wars against “infidels” for centuries.
Having conquered the entire Middle East and North Africa between 634 C.E. and 709 C.E., Muslims have consistently rejected sharing control of the region with non-believers. Thus, they fought against the Christian Crusades in the 11th to 13th centuries, and against European colonial powers in the 19th and 20th centuries. In each case, they never fought for liberation, but to preserve their conquests.
Today, Muslims continue to fight the Jewish State of Israel and predominantly Hindu India, while also waging campaigns of genocide against the Yazidis in Iraq, and the black Christian and animist population of what was once southern Sudan—all because their scripture forbids ceding any land to “infidels.”
Radical Muslim forces consistently reject peace efforts.
Islamists assassinated Jordan’s King Abdullah I in 1951 because he wanted peace with Israel. Thirty years later, they killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after he agreed to peace with Israel. During the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which began with the Oslo Accords in 1993, Islamists, including Hamas, have waged campaigns of terrorism against Israel to prevent peace efforts from moving forward. Rather, such moves by radical Islamists are meant to ensure that “peace” will only be achieved through conquest of “infidels.”
Hamas and Iran show an iron-clad commitment to “armed resistance.”
As part of a U.S.-drafted ceasefire arrangement with Iran in June 2025, the mullahs were offered $300 billion in reconstruction and economic development investment. Nevertheless, Iran refuses to make a deal to end the war, unable to permit their Divine mission to suffer defeat.
In Gaza, some $17 billion has been pledged by various countries, including significant amounts from Gulf states and a large U.S. pledge, but only a small fraction (just $280 million as of September 2026) has actually been transferred. Why? Because, as a Reuters report back in February stated, countries rightfully want to ensure that the funding goes for reconstruction within demilitarized places and not to “throw the money into another war zone.”
This should surprise no one, as Hamas’s 1988 charter makes armed struggle mandatory, asserting that there is no solution to the Palestinian question except through jihad. Furthermore, Hamas leaders have repeatedly said the terrorist group won’t disarm. Just last week, in an Arabic-language interview, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem stated: “The weapons of Hamas are, as we have always said, legitimate arms of resistance.”
Radical Islamists deceive Westerners with the promise of a “hudna.”
A hudna is often used by Islamists as a temporary truce, designed to lull the enemy and provide time for Muslim forces to halt losses, recover strength, rearm and prepare for resumption of jihad. To the disappointment of hopeful Western diplomats, it is rarely used to create more favorable conditions for peace.
This explains why Hamas has agreed to—and broken—numerous ceasefires in Gaza, including on Oct. 7, 2023. It also explains why Iran agreed to the so-called Iran nuclear deal in 2015, which gave it billions of dollars to build up its military infrastructure and that of its proxies.
Now, both Iran and Hamas continue to press the West for another hudna, so they can regain strength and eventually continue their jihad.
More hudnas do not serve American or Israeli interests. If Western leaders want peace in the Middle East, their only option is to resoundingly defeat the Islamists—to put them out of business by disarming them and destroying their power bases.
Originally published on Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
