The speech Netanyahu should give: "No More Hudnas"
Most Westerners have never heard the term "hudna" - and that's why Hamas's genocidal campaign against Jews and Israel is allowed to persist, year after year, decade after decade.
UPDATE, October 18, 2025: As I predicted in this speech, today Hamas announced that the only thing it’s willing to agree to is a 3-5 year hudna: “Senior Hamas official: Terror group can’t commit to disarm, is open to 3-5 year truce.” This will enable the terror gang to perpetrate endless 10/7s — as its leaders have promised to do — presumably with the 250 convicted terrorists whom Israel released (many serving multiple life sentences) in order to get back the 20 Jewish hostages whom Hamas took on 10/7.
Date: As soon as possible.
The setting: A press conference by Netanyahu.
To my fellow Israelis, and the civilized people of the world — especially the young.
My purpose in speaking to you today is to describe a realistic path to a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A real peace.
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about how a “ceasefire” is the best possible conclusion of the current conflict. I’m going to explain why a ceasefire will not work, has never worked, and will never work with Hamas. Not because I say so, but because the genocidal anti-Semitic murderers, rapists, torturers and kidnappers of Hamas, who keep attacking Israel say so — just not in a way that Western audiences can see, or understand.
What I’m about to share with you is not opinion. It is based on physical evidence that you can evaluate, including translations of public statements made by senior Hamas officials, to Arabic-speaking audiences. Western news, diplomatic and academic circles, however, typically ignore these statements, as they work to corral us into believing that yet another ceasefire is the ideal means to end to our current war with Hamas. It won’t. Here’s why.
A reminder of what Hamas did to Israel on 10/7, which triggered the current war
On October 7, 2023, Hamas perpetrated the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Over a 48-hour period, Hamas engaged in unspeakable acts of savage barbarity:
Raping and slaughtering women, girls and men, and desecrating their bodies in unspeakable ways
Murdering young people at a music festival
Killing parents in front of their children
Dragging 251 hostages back to Gaza
[CAUTION: These links contain raw, graphic imagery — much of which Hamas savages recorded themselves, then uploaded to social media, and even sent to the victims’ families.]
It was as if the gates of Hell opened, and the most vile, sub-human savages imaginable were able to enter our world, where focused completely on inflicting a genocide on Israeli Jews.
That is what led to the war that Israel has been engaged in against Hamas, ever since.
A brief history of Israel’s “ceasefires” with Hamas
The day before the 10/7 massacre, however, on October 6, 2023, Israel and Hamas were at peace. Israel was honoring the terms of the May 21, 2021 ceasefire agreement that we and Hamas agreed to uphold. That ceasefire was brought about after Hamas and another Gaza terrorist gang, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, shattered the previous ceasefire agreement, by firing more than 4,300 rockets into Israeli cities, starting on May 10, 2021, which triggered 11 days of fighting.
Before that, on November 11, 2018, Israel was also at peace. We were honoring the August 26, 2014 ceasefire that we and Hamas agreed to uphold. In contrast, since the beginning of 2018, Hamas kept attacking and murdering Jews in terrorist attacks, launched from both Gaza and the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank. On July 14, 2018 alone, Hamas fired 200 rockets into Israeli cities. In response, on November 11, 2018, Israel deployed a team of special forces soldiers to infiltrate Gaza, and plant listening devices in Hamas’s command centers, in an effort to help prevent future attacks. The operation went awry, and several Hamas terror operatives were killed, along with the Israeli unit commander. The next day, November 12, 2018, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired nearly 500 rockets into Israeli cities. Two days later, on November 13, 2018, we agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas and PIJ, and we honored all of its terms.
Before that, on June 11, 2014, Israel was also at peace. We were honoring the November 21, 2012 ceasefire that we and Hamas agreed to uphold. The next day, June 12, 2014, Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Jewish teenagers, and a few weeks later, on July 8, began firing more than 4,000 rockets into Israel. These terrorist acts triggered more than two months of fighting, which stopped only after we and Hamas signed yet another ceasefire, on August 26, 2014.
Before that, on November 9, 2012, Israel was also at peace. We were honoring the January 19, 2009 ceasefire that we declared. The next day, on November 10, 2012, a Hamas-affiliated terrorist gang in Gaza fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle, operating on Israel’s side of the border, which wounded four of our soldiers. These terrorists then fired hundreds of rockets into Israeli cities, triggering 11 days of fighting, which stopped only after we and Hamas signed yet another ceasefire, on November 21, 2012.
Before that, in November 2008, Israel was also at peace. We were honoring the June 19, 2008 ceasefire that we and Hamas agreed to uphold. Then, Hamas and affiliated groups shattered the previous ceasefire, by firing thousands of rockets into the Israeli city of Sderot, which triggered months of fighting.
Are you starting to see the pattern here?
Every time Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, Hamas broke it. Every. Single. Time.
This is not a coincidence.
The “hudna”: The 1,400-year-old deceitful tactic of Muslim supremacist (Islamist) offensive warfare
The breaking of ceasefires is a key tactic in the Muslim supremacist (Islamist) offensive warfare doctrine, that stretches back to the beginnings of their wars of conquest, in the 7th century. Specifically, when an Islamist regime instigates a war against a victim nation, but ends up losing battles, it asks for a “ceasefire,” and deceives the victim nation into believing that it will be an end to the hostilities.
What the Islamist attackers actually mean, however, but don’t say, is that what they’re seeking is a “hudna.” An Arabic word, a hudna is defined as a strategic, temporary pause in the fighting, so the Islamist attackers can rest, re-arm, re-organize, and prepare to launch further attacks on the victim nation, at times and places of their choosing.
“Do not weaken and call for peace while you are superior [strong].” (Surah 47:35)
The concept of a hudna originated in the first offensive wars that Islamist regimes instigated in the early 7th century. The hudna deception has been employed against victim nations ever since, often on the basis of a humanitarian pleadings. (Note: Hudnas are part of a broader Islamist military and cultural warfighting doctrine of lying to, infiltrating, manipulating and subverting victim nations, known as “taquiyya.”)
Ultimately, Islamist attackers, and their spiritual leaders (imams & sheikhs), believe that a permanent peace between warring parties can only result from one of two scenarios: if the attacker succeeds in conquering the victim nation, or if the attacker is destroyed. And it’s been this way for 1,400 years, without interruption.
Proof that Hamas’s leaders have no intent to stop instigating wars against Israel
We in Israel have been bullied by “the international community,” into accepting these fake ceasefires — these hudnas — over and over again, from 1994 through 2021.
Let me say this plainly: So long as I am Israel’s prime minister, we will never allow ourselves to be pressured into a hudna again.
You may say, “Well, Mr. Netanyahu, maybe this time Hamas really will abide by the terms of the ceasefire to which it agrees. How do you know it won’t?”
My answer is: Because senior Hamas figures themselves say that they will continue perpetrating 10/7 massacres until Israel is destroyed. Case in point, Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, who said the following on Lebanon TV, October 23, 2023:
“The Al-Aqsa Flood [10/7 massacre] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.”
“Nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do is justified."
Does that sound like a terrorist gang that is going to abide by any “ceasefire”?
Here are more official statements, from Hamas’s founding charter, and its senior officials — in their own words, in Arabic, explaining their actual objectives, which boil down to (a) Exterminating every Jew on Earth, (b) Destroying Israel, and (c) Conquering every nation on Earth, to establish totalitarian Islamist rule over all their peoples:
“[T]he Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them.” “Our struggle against the Jews… needs all sincere efforts… until the enemy is vanquished and Allah's victory is realised.” […] The stones and trees will say, “O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (Hamas Charter, 1988; Source)
“All of you 7 million Palestinians abroad, enough of the warming up. You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe, by way of slaughter and killing.” (Fathi Hammad, senior Hamas official, July 18, 2019; Source)
[W]e will continue to lead one intifada [wave of terrorism] after the other, until we liberate Palestine [meaning, destroy Israel] in its entirety.” (Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, December 14, 2011; Source)
“The entire 510 million square kilometers of Planet Earth will come under [a system] where there is no injustice, no oppression, no Zionism, no treacherous Christianity…” (Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar, December 2022; Source)
How does history show that wars of aggression actually ended, permanently?
Let us now examine how, in recent history, offensive wars were brought to a permanent end, and the attacking regime was prevented from ever mounting another one.
The Nazis — Aryan supremacists — spent more than ten years claiming that Jews, less than 1% of the German population, were the source of all of its problems. At the same time, and in egregious violation of the Versailles Treaty of 1918, which brought World War I to a close, the Germans built the largest offensive war machine the world had ever seen.
After slaughtering six million Jews, and causing the deaths of ten million other civilians and Allied soldiers, in 1945 the Nazi regime was forced to sign a complete, unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. Germany was then occupied by the Allies, which de-Nazified their schools and civic institutions, and forced them to start advancing individual rights, limited constitutional government, and democratic principles. Further, Germany’s entire warfighting machinery was demolished, as was the underlying, motivating Aryan supremacist ideology. Within ten years, the Allies and the Germans took the first steps towards becoming true friends, and we have remained so ever since.
The exact same thing happened with Imperial Japan. Japan instigated the war in the Pacific with its December 1941 attack on the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. In 1945, after nearly four years of fighting, Japan’s government was forced to sign a complete, unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. The Allies took control of all of Japan’s schools and civic institutions, and removed all of their supremacist indoctrination materials. Within a few years, Japan began building peaceful institutions, and we became true friends, and have been, ever since.
These total, unconditional surrenders, committed to writing, finally brought permanent peace to both Germany and Japan. The entire world knew that each of these supremacist, expansionist regimes were brought to their knees, their ability to instigate any new wars was utterly destroyed, and both understood that Allied forces would occupy them until peace could be assured.
Here is how a permanent peace can start between Israel and the Gaza Strip
Since Israel’s rebirth on our ancestral homeland, in 1948, we have sought a permanent peace with our neighbors. We’ve enjoyed peace with a number of them, and the list is growing each day, thanks to the Abraham Accords.
Some, however, including Hamas, openly refuse any peace with us, and are openly committed to our destruction. Israel is not going to let that happen.
Given everything that Hamas has done to us over nearly two decades, and on 10/7 and beyond, here are our requirements for the beginning of a permanent peace — and they are not negotiable:
Hamas must issue a total, unconditional surrender, in writing — in Hebrew and Arabic — and be verified by translators. Further, it must include a promise to do the following, within 72 hours:
Release all of the hostages — living and dead
Provide the IDF with maps of all of its terror tunnels, weapons storage locations and command centers
Even after Hamas’s total, unconditional surrender, Gaza will still remain a threat to Israel, until its population stops supporting a genocide against us
Once the terms of Hamas’s total, unconditional surrender are executed, there will be a starting point for a lasting peace between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
I say “a starting point,” because it’s not just Hamas that has threatened and attacked Israeli Jews. Since taking complete control of the Gaza Strip in 2005, and operating all of its schools, media, mosques, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, Hamas has indoctrinated Gaza’s population, especially its children, to believe in its endless, genocidal jihad against Israel and Jews.
Specifically, Hamas spread an ideology throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that Palestinian Muslims should love death as the Jews love life, and that their highest aspiration should be to die in the course of the jihad to destroy Israel, as part of their shared commitment to conquer the world for Islam. In this regard, Hamas is indistinguishable from ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Hezbollah.
This one-minute video contains a sampling of public-facing statements by senior Hamas figures and the religious, educational and political leaders they employ, who, since 2005, have indoctrinated residents of the Gaza Strip to support the total extermination of Jews — starting with those in Israel:
Further, recent surveys of Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, conducted by Palestinian research organizations, demonstrate the overwhelming support for Hamas’s genocidal, endless war against Israel and Jews:
Additional data points:
Three surveys of Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and The West Bank, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, in March, June and September 2023, showed:
Like Hamas, most Palestinians support terrorism against Jews, to destroy Israel, and replace it with a Palestinian state
Like Hamas, the vast majority of Palestinians reject any “two-state solution”
By 3-2 margin, Palestinians say Hamas deserves to represent them
These findings mirror those revealed in a December 2015 survey.
Hamas also won three recent student government elections at West Bank universities over its Fatah rivals -- one in 2022 and two in 2023.
Post-10/7, a November 2023 survey, conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development of Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and The West Bank, revealed massive support for Hamas and its 10/7 slaughter-rape-torture-kidnapping of Jews:
83% of Palestinians in the West Bank, and 64% in the Gaza Strip, say they support Hamas’s 10/7 attack.
62% of those in the West Bank say they have a “very positive” view of Hamas.
A follow-up survey, conducted in February 2024 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, showed almost identical results: 84% of Palestinians in the West Bank, and 57% in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas's 10/7 massacre of Jews was "correct."
Clearly, even if Hamas complies with our demand for its total, unconditional surrender, a “new” Hamas could quickly emerge, committed to its exact same genocidal jihad against Israel and Jews everywhere, but operate under another name.
How can this endless, broader Palestinian threat to Israel and Jews be mitigated, and eventually, ended? It’s a question that we in Israel struggle with, every hour of every day.
Israel wants a true, permanent peace. Do you?
Do you want to see a real, permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Or, do you want to give Hamas another hudna — time to rest, re-arm and re-strategize, only to attack Israel again, and again, and again, as its leaders openly say they will?
If you truly want peace, if you truly want to finally see all the bloodshed and suffering in Gaza and Israel come to a quick, permanent end, I ask that you join us, and make your voice known, publicly, now.
We’ve been demanding that Hamas surrender, and release all the hostages it took, starting in the days after 10/7. We made these demands to prevent our noble warriors from even having to go into Gaza, to hunt down the perpetrators of this massacre. Our demands went unheeded.
Had the international community, including the UN, human rights organizations and even Hollywood joined together after 10/7, and with one voice, shared our demand for Hamas’s total, unconditional surrender, all of suffering and destruction on both sides of our border with Gaza could have been avoided.
Maybe now, finally, the international community will join Israel in seeking what we have always wanted, and made endless sacrifices to achieve: a real, permanent peace.
Thank you for listening, and for considering what I’ve said.
I’ll now take some questions from the media.
[Note: If the assembled media continues their standard practice, of peddling mind-boggling anti-Israel lies, conjured up by Hamas and its operatives, but “reported” as facts, Mr. Netanyahu will have a golden opportunity to thoroughly expose their vital role in perpetuating this war. Recent reports — examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here — comprehensively prove this pattern of shameful behavior, masquerading as “journalism.” It is long past due for them to finally be held to substantive account, before a global audience. Netanyahu’s staff should prepare for this press conference by first creating a web page (I suggest 107facts.org) that contains links to, and summaries of the dozens of other deeply-researched reports that demonstrate the truthfulness of what he alleges, so the world can finally begin to realize how they’ve been lied to, manipulated, and played for fools, by many of the West’s supposedly most elite “news” organs. - JS]
Resources
The 10/7 massacre
Documentary: “Screams Before Silence”: Never-before-heard eyewitness accounts from released hostages, survivors, and first responders. During the October 7 attacks on Israeli towns and at the Nova Music Festival, women and girls were raped, assaulted, and mutilated. Released hostages have revealed that Israeli captives in Gaza have also been sexually assaulted.
How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7, by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella, The New York Times, December 28, 2023. This Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel.
Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – Sexual Violence on October 7, by Noëlle Quénivet, Lieber Institute, United States Military Academy at West Point, December 19, 2023.
Website: HAMAS MASSACRE: Documentation of Crimes Against Humanity: This website contains video, photos and other documentation of some of Hamas's crimes against humanity from the October 7 massacre. The site was developed in conjunction with the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, and joins a series of public diplomacy measures for the international community.
Website: Hamas Massacre: This site contains hundreds of raw, unedited, extremely graphic videos of Hamas terrorists burning Jews and their pets alive, committing rapes, looting homes, setting homes and neighborhoods on fire, kidnapping civilians and corpses, and carrying out other crimes against humanity. In many cases, the videos were taken by Hamas terrorists, which they then uploaded to social media - or shared with the victims’ families, via email or social media. The site has three primary special focus areas:
The Road to October 7: Hamas’ Long Game, Clarified — Combating Terrorism Center, United States Military Academy at West Point, October/November 2023.
Chronology of Israel-Hamas ceasefires - and of Hamas violating them
A Brief History of Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreements, Jewish Virtual Library
Tactical Hudna and Islamist Intolerance, by Denis MacEoin, Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2008, Volume 15: Number 3.
How Taqiyya Alters Islam’s Rules of War: Defeating Jihadist Terrorism, by Raymond Ibrahim, Middle East Forum, Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2010, Volume 17: Number 1.
Original content is © Copyright 2025 by Jon Sutz.