|
The militant Hamas movement remains deeply entrenched in Gaza. After it seized power there over two years ago, Hamas has neutralized the power of the major clans, brought competing paramilitary groups under its control, survived a three-week war with Israel and functioned under a strict economic embargo. It refuses to compromise on its goal of the eradication of the Israeli state. It is for that reason that the current US administration is living in a neverland of diplomacy. George Mitchell, President Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, has in effect been working with only half of the Palestinian leadership; so far it has not engaged Hamas. Furthermore, the Palestinian Authority is not strong enough in Gaza to return to power and Israel has no desire to reoccupy an area it vacated in 2005.
Why has Hamas suspended its campaign of firing rockets into Israel? The three-month old war proved that Hamas is vulnerable. As Howard Schneider of the Washington Post argues, “it seems to be maintaining a policy of ‘industrial quiet’—suppressing most rocket fire into Israel as part of a pause in violence that is both practical, for rearming, and strategic, to ensure its hold on power.”
Hamas was founded as an alternative to the PLO and has a charter that calls for Israel’s destruction. It is a terrorist group and draws both financial and military support from Syria and Iran. Despite the failure of Hamas to protect Gaza citizens from the recent Israeli war or to truly govern and meet the needs of the Gaza population, there is no sign of any popular uprising against Hamas in Gaza. The longstanding policy of Hamas is to consider a long-term ceasefire with Israel in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the Gaza and West Bank land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. But they have also made it clear that this is merely the first stage to driving Israel back to the 1948 boundaries and then into the sea. Hamas will never recognize the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in Palestine. For that reason, any hope for any peace in the Middle East is not possible. The terrorists of Hamas remain a formidable obstacle and they are not interested in negotiations with Israel.
See Schneider’s article in the Washington Post (6 October 2009). |
