It’s difficult for educated middle-class westerners, to get into the mind of religious fundamentalists. We tend to think that while they certainly say horrible things, they don’t really want those horrible things. After all, at the end of the day, everyone wants to sit at home and have dinner with the family, watch a good movie, and occasionally go for a vacation. Right?
What we witnessed on Saturday, October 7 is just how wrong that is. Hamas’ founding “covenant,” issued in 1988, explicitly called for the murder of Jews. Not IDF soldiers, not Israeli citizens. Jews. And they meant it.
However, since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has enjoyed the accommodation of eight successive Israeli governments. Netanyahu headed six of them. He became prime minister in 2009 promising to “overthrow the Hamas regime,” but has taken great care of upholding it, pursuing agreements with it and even transferring funds to it.
Why? In March 2019 Netanyahu explained his strategy: “Those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.” Israel’s current Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, outdid him and stated that “Hamas is an asset.”
In short, in order to prevent progress on a path that ends with the division of the land of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state, it is necessary to make sure that there is no such path, and when the Palestinians are divided into two entities there is no such path.
That is why Netanyahu also made sure to thwart reconciliation attempts between Fatah and Hamas, which would have brought the latter under the PA’s authority. There have been several such reconciliation attempts in the past 15 years, the main one in the spring of 2014. Netanyahu’s Israel has always diligently frustrated them.
On the other hand, Netanyahu also made sure to oppose and/or to thwart any comprehensive move to occupy the Gaza Strip and undermine Hamas’s rule. The main objective was to keep Hamas separate from the PA and in power.
The issue here is not Netanyahu’s responsibility or fault, but the understanding that there were strategic reasons for maintaining Hamas rule, reasons that were established on a rejection of the two-state solution and on the belief the one could reason with fundamentalists.
Looking ahead, we need to reconsider that strategy and understand our alternatives.
On the one hand, there is the option of occupying the entire Gaza Strip and overthrowing Hamas. The political right will find it problematic for the reasons listed above: It eventually leads to the two-state solution. But it is, of course, problematic in other respects. It will incur a huge price for the IDF, one that will continue grow almost on a daily basis as even after the collapse of Hamas rule there will be plenty of armed young men who will maintain violent resistance, week after week, for years. And of course, it is problematic because it will place Israel directly responsible for the lives and well-being of 2 million Gazans.
On the other hand, there is a different strategic view. What the Oslo Accords managed to do was to provide the State of Israel with a proxy who takes care of the Palestinian population, and even receives funds from abroad for this purpose. It also protects Israel from the accusation of implementing a formal apartheid regime. Israel has no direct rule over the lives of 3.5 million West Bank Palestinian, and there is even an entity that is no less afraid of Hamas, and fights it alongside the Jewish state.
Fast forward a few weeks from now. Don’t get your hopes up: Hamas won’t be annihilated. Not only are the terrorists holding over a hundred captives and abductees, it is in any case it is impossible to destroy the movement without occupying the entire strip for a long time, and Israel, for the reasons mentioned, does not want to do that. In addition, Israel’s time is limited. We are already seeing horrendous images from the bombings in Gaza, and as time goes by it will get increasingly difficult to push on.
Thus what we can hope for is exacting serious damage to Hamas’ military and political capabilities, perhaps also the elimination of part of the leadership: That is, transform it into an organization on the run, which cannot organize an effective attack on Israel and does not actually control Gaza. If this happens, this terrible war will end with a reasonable result (without taking into account Hezbollah’s intervention).
Then the day after the war will come. Left to itself, Hamas will recover within a few years. Obviously that cannot be allowed. What must be done is use the war as a starting point for a geopolitical process. Namely, we must do the opposite of what we did till now: Not strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority, but vice versa.
This means entering into negotiations with the PA and allowing it to take over the Gaza Strip. It probably will not be willing to march into Gaza on the bayonets of the IDF, so not only diplomacy, but a lot of funds and guarantees from the international community will be needed, not only from the U.S. and Europe but also Arab countries. Perhaps that planned peace treaty with Saudi Arabia will be part of it.
It won’t be easy, but this is the only way to stabilize the region: Bringing in the PA or creating a body like the PA that is not fed by religious fundamentalism but by a national concept, that wants an independent state and is ready to reach an agreement with Israel. As during the Oslo process, the horizon promised must be a state (demilitarized, with security arrangements, etc.), and as with any agreement with its neighbors, it won’t mean they will suddenly start loving Israel. It means that there will be a secure border and the beginning of a long road to reasonable neighborliness.
The trauma right now is excruciating, and we are only at the beginning of this war. However, let’s remember that the trauma of the Yom Kippur War was terrible and six years later a peace agreement was signed between Israel and Egypt. Even today there are many people living in Egypt who do not like Israel, but there’s a safe border between the countries for 45 years. The entire Sinai Peninsula is not in Israel’s hands, but tens of thousands of Israelis visit it every summer.
For now, I pray for the safety of our troops and civilians everywhere.
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Published in the Jewish Journal
Tomer Persico - English 