Don't say you weren't warned. Yesterday, everyone in the world attempted to claim credit for a hostage-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, even though the agreement technically didn't get final approval. Israel had agreed to the terms on the table, Hamas had supposedly given a 'green light,' but I wrote yesterday that Hamas usually attempts to pull their last-minute manipulations at this very stage:

As I wrote earlier, don't count on this deal holding up until the hostages get released. And even if it holds up through Phase I, don't be surprised when Hamas reneges and demands a renegotiation at that point, too. 

And ... welcome to the Hamas Hokey Pokey:

President Biden and the prime minister of Qatar announced Wednesday both Israel and Hamas had accepted the truce, the result of a year of painstaking diplomacy that reached a conclusion in the days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. 

Palestinian militant group Hamas also said it had reached a deal with Israel, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed the agreement and urged the Israeli government to accept it.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging on parts of the agreement during negotiations taking place in Qatar, creating what his office called “a last-minute crisis.”

Every. Single. Time. Although, it's tough to expect much else from a group whose mission is the annihilation of every Jew on the planet, except those they subjugate into slavery. This is one reason why the US and Western position was to refuse to negotiate with terrorists at all, and for that matter genocidal regimes run by terrorists. We refused terms to the Nazis and Imperial Japan for that very reason -- because there is no rational discussions possible with genocidal nutcases bent on mass murder by any means possible. 

Of course, both Israel and the US have given up the ghost on that principle. Israel is about to cut a deal with Hamas in which they will trade a massively asymmetrical number of prisoners convicted of terror, including murderers, for each hostage Hamas releases. Israel has refused to release any prisoners that participated in the October 7 massacre, however, and that appears to be the basis of this round of Hamas Hokey Pokey:

Overnight, the PMO said that the purported dispute was related to the identity of Palestinian security prisoners slated for release. It said Hamas was “demanding to dictate the identity of these murderers,” contradicting agreed-upon terms.

That's not the only issue that will likely get the Hokey Pokey, and not the most important either. The Israelis agreed in principle to withdraw from both the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors at the end of the third phase if Hamas fulfilled the terms of the agreement, which is not a smart move for them strategically but absolutely critical for Hamas' survival. It's a bit murky, but it appears the IDF will draw down from the Netzarim corridor sooner, allowing transit from the southern to northern regions of Gaza, but Israel will remain in control of Philadelphi and its access to Egypt until the deal is complete.

Hamas agreed to that, and now wants to renegotiate it:

Separately, a senior diplomatic official denied to reporters on Thursday that Israel had agreed to gradually pull out of the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between Gaza and Egypt from the start of the ceasefire.

The official said Israeli troops will remain in the area “throughout the entire first stage, all 42 days.” The number of troops deployed there will remain the same, the official said, “but will be distributed in a different manner, including outposts, patrols, observation points and control along the entire route.”

Only on day 16 of the first stage, the official added, will negotiations begin over the end of the war, and “if Hamas does not agree to Israeli demands to end the war, Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor also on the 42nd day and also the 50th day.”

In practical terms, the official contended, “Israel is staying in Philadelphi until further notice.”

I'd bet that's the real point of contention, and for good reason. Hamas can't get resupplied while Israel controls the border with Egypt, and they badly need resupply to prepare for the next war they launch. Why Israel agreed to withdraw at all is inexplicable ... except of course for the Western pressure to end the war and domestic pressure to get the hostages back, which is precisely why Hamas keeps capturing and torturing hostages. 

They also do the Hamas Hokey Pokey because that too gets rewarded. Now that both Biden and Trump have declared a win with this agreement, Hamas expects both to pressure Israel into further concessions to keep from being embarrassed by its collapse. 

Joe Biden has been dancing to the Hamas Hokey Pokey all along; will Trump? That may be what Hamas wants to find out. 

At any rate, no one should declare this agreement finalized unless and until the first hostage/prisoner exchanges take place. And no one should believe that this is the last time that Hamas will start a war, fight it, lose, and then Hokey Pokey the world around to start another war, either.