Welcome to a quick Holidays edition of Great Game – your weekly geopolitical update!

Yesterday, reports emerged that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had rejected an offer of a permanent cease-fire brokered by the Egyptians with the aid of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Reportedly, the deal would have involved a mass release of hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the formation of a transitional government in Gaza without the direct persecution or condemnation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Here’s my three points on this:

1: No-one expected Hamas to sign the deal

Really – for Hamas to sign such a deal would have been equivalent to Ukraine signing a cease-fire where President Zelenskyy had to step down and a council of Belarus and Turkey would decide the political future of Ukraine. Of course, Hamas isn’t going to sign a document that at least partially removes them from power in Gaza. In my view, the entire point of the October 7th attacks was to consolidate power in Gaza and lure the Israelis into a trap, so why would Hamas give Israel a way out and give up power? You could argue that the more than 20,000 dead Gaza citizens would be plenty of “why”, but that’s not how Hamas views things.

So, in all seriousness, I doubt any of the involved parties really expected Hamas to sign this deal. So what is the point then?

2: The Neighbourhood Watch

What’s really remarkable about this deal is that