Most

of my questions to you so far have been about what Israel is trying to do. Just want to ask one quick question about Hamas before we turn to U.S. policy. What does Hamas want right now? What do Hamas leaders say they want at this point in the war?

So first, you know, take a grain of salt. I'm obviously not Palestinian, and Hamas is much more opaque. And what Hamas wants and what even Hamas wanted on October 7th is still a matter of debate. There are probably those inside Hamas who do not know about what's coming, and probably those who bemoan what Hamas brought upon itself, but especially upon Gazans. But the people who really decide, and that seems to come down now to two people, especially one, Yehseh Sinwar, who's the political leader inside the Gaza Strip, not the political leaders outside, especially in Qatar. He seems to want an all-out war. He has no intention of relenting no matter what damage happens around him. It's worth remembering this. I know this sounds like a sort of a pablum, but it is true that Hamas had a choice to end the war at any point in time. It could have laid down its arms, not only to Israel, but to Egypt or the Palestinian Authority or anyone else. And it is, in fact, the Palestinian government of Gaza. You would expect the Palestinian government to see what's happening to its own people and to end the war, which it could have done in a day, releasing the hostages and laying down its arms. It does not. That's sort of calculated and baked in to how people relate to Hamas. I think there's the bigotry of low expectations there. But it is true. So what they want, first and foremost, they want to maintain their power, want to maintain their ability to continue to operate. And they have said throughout their history and also very recently, they want to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine. That was the goal of the operation on October 7th. Obviously, it itself would not have liberated Palestine alone. But we are seeing more and more reports also about their rhetoric more recently. That's not to say there aren't other voices in Hamas. There certainly are. There are those who also say we should, in the short term at least, accept a Palestinian state in the 67 lines, not relinquishing in any way the rest of Palestine, in other words, all of Israel, but in the short term do that. That does not seem to be what Sinwar is after. So in other words, a bit of a mess, a bit of all of the above. Fundamentally, the organization is committed to what it always was, which is not only the liberation of all of Palestine, river to the sea, but the establishment of Islamic, Islamist state in that Palestine. Moving

to U.S.