The Israeli view of a ceasefire with Hamas (and other Palestinian factions) in the Gaza Strip is indicative of a rift between extremists and "moderates" in the country; those who support the use of force to break the Hamas government in Gaza and end the rocket attacks, and those who believe in a confluence of interests between Israel and Hamas through Egyptian mediation.
Perhaps the most prominent factor that hindered the implementation of the ceasefire was that Israel couldn't stomach Hamas' actual control of Gaza and its military wing that engaged the occupation army. This would have given the impression that Israel's acceptance of a ceasefire grants Hamas legitimacy, and hindered Israel's possible future efforts to destroy Hamas in Gaza in order to bring back the Palestinian National Authority headed by President Abbas.
The stance has been expressed by the well-known writer Meron Benvenisti in an article at Ha'aretz. "The ceasefire, accompanied by an agreement on the crossings, and in particular the opening of the Rafah crossing, will help Hamas to cement its control over Gaza. They will establish their own organisation, which will grow and spread and become permanent - and distance themselves from the government in the [occupied] West Bank. It seems that the ceasefire, even if it is fragile, will mark a point of no return in the splitting off of the Gaza Palestinians into a separate authority."
Sophisticated strategy
He adds: "It is also possible to blame Israel, whose consistent policies led to the detachment of Gaza and the Hamas takeover. Whether we give Israel credit for a sophisticated strategy that produced such results, or whether we call the result a coincidence, it is clear that the additional split within the Palestinian people serves long-term Israeli interests."
Yuval Diskin, director of Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet, also has a similar point of view. In a recent meeting at the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, he recommended preparing for a large-scale military operation in Gaza. "For if Fatah keeps loosing its popular status and becomes weaker and weaker", Diskin is reported to have said, "there will be no escape from waging this military campaign".
Yuval Steintiz, a former chairman of the said committee, agreed with Diskin, asserting that there was "no other choice but to go ahead with Operation Protective Wall 2 in order to avoid another South Lebanon in Gaza, from where rockets may reach Ashdod or Tel Aviv".
On the other hand, there are calls for dealing with Hamas, even if indirectly. Promoting the idea of building bridges with Hamas and giving it the chance to exist within a demilitarised Islamic state that guarantees Israel's security, Ari Shavit from the Ha'aretz, says, "We have a neighbour who is a murderer, but [he is] not delusional. He has good reasons to hate us. Exactly 60 years ago, we deprived his mothers and fathers of their land. We emptied out their villages. We destroyed their homes. We wiped their Palestine off the face of the earth. And in the great heat of May-July 1948, we sent them ... all the way to Gaza, ... leaving in their hearts that deep pain that over the years became a deep hatred."
Apprehensive of the increasing power of that neighbour, Shavit adds, "There are only two ways to deal with a killer-neighbour: to hit him or to disarm him ... Israel may eventually have to enter the neighbour's crowded trailer and beat him senseless. But before we are dragged into Gaza, we must exhaust the other possibility. We should offer Hamas a deal: an Islamic republic in Gaza in exchange for full demilitarisation".
Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopedia.
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