142: Can Gaza ever move on from Hamas? With Ahmad Fouad Alkhatib

August 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Ahmad Fouad Alkhatib, a Gazan American writer and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, returns to Ask Haviv Anything a year after his first appearance to revisit the question that still blocks every path forward for Gaza: Can Hamas be removed from power, and can Gazan society ever move past it? His short book, Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, argues that the group has held the people of Gaza captive long before October 7—not just physically, but politically, ideologically, and economically. The conversation traces Hamas’s deep roots in Gazan society, the international aid system that inadvertently sustained its rule, and why Alkhatib believes a window for change may finally be opening, even as skepticism remains high.

The Islamization of Gaza and the Rise of Hamas

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Introduction & Episode Framing** - Host Haviv Rettig Gur introduces Ahmad Fouad Alkhatib and frames the episode around the central question of whether Gaza can move on from Hamas rule.
2 (04:16) **The Islamization of Gaza: From Secular Society to Hamas's Grip** - Alkhatib describes his childhood in Gaza and the slow, deliberate transformation of a largely secular society into one dominated by Islamist ideology.
3 (15:37) **Personal Resistance: Rejecting Hamas's Recruitment and the Price of Leaving** - Alkhatit recounts his personal experience of being targeted for recruitment by Hamas as a bright teenager and the immense societal pressure he faced for seeking an education in the US.
4 (28:57) **The 2006 Coup and Becoming a Refugee** - Alkhatib details how the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007 permanently prevented his return home, forcing him to seek asylum in the United States.
5 (31:21) **The NGO Industrial Complex: How International Aid Propped Up Hamas** - Alkhatib presents his core argument: the international NGO ecosystem, by providing essential services, allowed Hamas to focus its resources on military infrastructure and control.
6 (47:10) **Al Jazeera: The Propaganda Arm of Hamas** - The conversation turns to the critical role of Al Jazeera in lionizing Hamas and undermining Palestinian national aspirations.
7 (58:50) **The Core Question: Is Hamas an Authentic Representation of Gaza?** - Haviv challenges Alkhatib with the pessimistic Israeli view that Hamas, despite its exploitation, is an authentic and inescapable political reality for Gaza.

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Show Notes

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Can Gaza ever be rebuilt while Hamas remains armed? Gazan-American writer Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib returns to trace Hamas’s rise — from Islamist charities and the slow remaking of Gazan society to authoritarian rule, October 7, and ruinous war. Drawing on his childhood in Gaza and his new book, Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, Ahmed argues that foreign aid, international NGOs, and Al Jazeera helped Hamas entrench itself while ordinary Gazans paid the price. He and Haviv confront the hardest questions: Can Hamas be separated from Gazan society? Could a movement built around armed “resistance” ever disarm? And is there still a path from permanent war to Palestinian nation-building and coexistence?

This episode is sponsored by the family of Dr. Chalo Smukler, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, physician, and proud American Jew, on the occasion of his unveiling.

Born in Paraguay and descended from Jews who fled persecution in Eastern Europe, Chalo was a leader from a young age in the Jewish youth movement Hanoar Hatzioni and first moved to Israel at sixteen. There he discovered a free society, a sense of Jewish brotherhood, and a refuge that would remain central to his life.

He lived with humility, kindness, courage, and an extraordinary capacity to make every person feel heard and loved. He believed profoundly in the Jewish people, in Israel, and in tikun olam, the responsibility we share to build a better future for all humanity, Jewish or not.

While he would have been dismayed by what Jews around the world have faced since his passing, he would have taken solace in a truth he deeply believed: that when the Jewish people stand together, there is nothing we cannot overcome.

To all those whose lives he touched, his memory will forever be a blessing.

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