Israel's Hamas Dilemma

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright January 1, 2009
All Rights Reserved.                    

         When Hamas seized Gaza June 14, 2007, it derailed any hope of peace with Israel, splitting the Palestinian people into two separate parts, about 1.5 million in the tiny once Egyptian Mediterranean enclave and about 1.5 million in the larger West Bank, controlled by the Palestinian Authority.  Democracy backfired on the United States Jan. 26, 2006 when Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections, essentially ending the rule of former Palestine Liberation Organization President Yasser Arafat, whose actual end came when he was poisoned Nov. 11, 2004.  Arafat’s moderate successor Abbas couldn’t juggle radical elements, eventually handing power to Hamas.  Unlike the PLO and Palestinian Authority, Hamas doesn’t accept Israel’s right to exist, continuing the 60-year-old struggle when Israel was founded in 1948.  Sixty-years of peace-making has resulted in failure.

            Hamas shattered a fragile truce Dec. 26 firing rockets into Israel’s southern border.  Tit-for-tat attacks in November ended peace efforts by Egypt to broker a more permanent peace agreement with Hamas to begin the two-state peace solution sought by the U.S., United Nations, European Union and Russia, the so-called quartet, headed by special envoy British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  Israel responded forcefully with a relentless F-16 bombing attack, hitting at Hamas’ infrastructure and series of hidden tunnels, serving as supply lines from Egypt.  Since bombing Hamas Dec. 27, over 390 Palestinian casualties, including some 60 civilians, have added to a mounting death toll.  While calls for a ceasefire continue, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seized his chance for redemption.  Olmert presided over the July 11, 2006 failed war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

            In a few months, Israel will pick a new Prime Minister, most likely either moderate acting Prime Minister and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni or conservative former Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.  Olmert, the former mayor of Jerusalem, resigned his position April 14, 2008 after a payola-type political scandal sending him into early retirement.  Olmert couldn’t recover from a failed war with Hezbollah, accomplishing little other that high levels of Israeli casualties.  “If conditions ripen to the point that we assesses they promise a safer existence in southern Israel, we will consider it [a truce].  We’re not there yet,” said Olmert, signaling that Israel intends to weaken Hamas.  All parties involved, including the Egyptians and moderate Palestinians led by Abbas, know there can be no peace with Hamas controlling Gaza.  They support, though privately, Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas.

            Hamas has never supported any U.N. or U.S.-backed peace agreement.  Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated for trying to make peace in 1981 by Islamic radicals associated with Omar Abdel Rahman, responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  Unlike the Palestinian Authority that seeks a two-state peace agreement, Hamas seeks unequivocally the destruction of Israel   Their relentless suicide bombing during the six-year long Palestinian “intifada” began after former President Bill Clinton’s peace talks collapsed in Aug. 2000.  Hamas’ undeclared war with Israel prompted the creation of Israel’s controversial security fence, attempting to insulate the Jewish state from suicide attacks.  Hamas’ Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh takes his orders from its exiled leader living in Damascus Khaled Mashal, determined to avenge Israel’s assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

            Despite calls for a ceasefire, the White House signaled it has no plans of pushing Israel to acquiesce to international pressure.  “I think President Bush thinks that Hamas needs to stop firing rockets and that is what will be the first step in a ceasefire,” said deputy White House press secretary Gordon Johndroe.  Israel has had no better friend than President George W. Bush, whose presidency has been marked by fighting terrorism since Sept. 11.  After Sept. 11, it was difficult for the White House to conduct business-as-usual with any “freedom fighters,” justifying terror to achieve political ends.  “What our people want is clear:  an immediate stop to all kinds of aggression, the end of the siege by all means, the opening of all border crossings, and international guarantees that the occupation will not renew this terrorist war again,” said Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu, highlighting the problem.

            Hamas belives Israel occupies Arab lands.  When they speak about ending “occupation,” they seek the unequivocal right of return of Palestinians to Israel’s original 1948 borders.  When Israel defeated a collective Arab effort in 1967 to annihilate the Jewish state, they expanded its territory to Egypt’s Gaza and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights.  Palestinians had no claim to the so-called “occupied” lands then but claim them now as their own.  Before 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria offered not one inch of territory to Palestinians, creating the diaspora, spreading Palestinians to neighboring countries, including Lebanon.  When President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20, he’ll face some tough choices on the Middle East.  It won’t be easy to return to past U.S. policies of supporting terrorists in their efforts to negotiate more favorable peace deals.

  John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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