A central part of the Palestinians’ national narrative is that they have occupied their homeland for thousands of years—or, in Mahmoud Abbas’s words, “since before Abraham”—and were only recent displaced or expelled by Zionists. While Arabs have indeed lived in the land of Israel since the Islamic conquest, there were successive waves of mass non-Arab immigration from the Middle Ages until World War II. In The Rape of Palestine, first published in 1938, William Ziff recounts some of this history, paying special attention to the role of the British government in encouraging further Arab immigration even while making it increasingly difficult for Jews to enter the land:

It was always the foreign soldier who was the police power in Palestine. The Tulunides [a 9th-century Muslim dynasty] brought in Turks and Africans. The Fatimids [who ruled Egypt and parts of the Levant in medieval times] introduced Berbers, Slavs, Greeks, Kurds, and mercenaries of all kinds. The Mamelukes [who replaced the Fatimids] imported legions of Georgians and Circassians. Each monarch for his personal safety relied on great levies of slave warriors. Saladin, hard-pressed by the Crusaders, received 150,000 Persians who were given lands in Galilee and the Sidon district for their services. . . .

Lured by stark evidence of labor scarcity and big pay, peoples from all surrounding states began to drift into Palestine [after World War I]. Though a huge corps of coast and frontier guards kept vigilant watch to prevent the entry of “illegal” Jews, Arabs from anywhere entered without even the gesture of passport investigation. The report of the [British] Peel Commission admits frankly that the inhabitants of Syria and Transjordan “are free to enter the corresponding districts in Palestine without special formality.” It is, in fact, by disguising themselves as Arabs that most “illegal” Jewish immigration is accomplished.

Though the [British] government solemnly estimates in 1937 a total Muslim increase by immigration of only 22,535 since the time of the British occupation, evidence of a vast influx of desert tribesmen is obvious everywhere. As early as 1926, Colonial Secretary [Leopold] Amery cautiously conceded that despite the growth of the Jewish element “the increase of the Arabs is actually greater than the Jews.” Figures presented before the Peel Commission in 1937 showed the Arab population to have more than doubled in fourteen years. This admitted gain in half a generation must either be attributed to outside immigration or to the most astonishing philo-progenitiveness in medical history. . . .

[T]he government itself acknowledged in 1922 the immigration of whole tribes “from the Hejaz and southern Transjordan into the Beersheba area,” a fact which in itself must make its estimates of [minimal] Arab immigration far-fetched. Other approximate figures are available from scattered but credible sources. One of these is the statement of the French governor of the Hauran in Syria, that from his district alone, in the summer of 1933, 35,000 people had left for Palestine as a consequence of bad crops.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.