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Hillel Frisch

Hillel Frisch

Hillel Frisch is a professor of political studies and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University and an expert on the Arab world at The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

Moving on to the final stage of the hostage agreement will validate the path of jihad among Palestinians and the wider Muslim world, replenish Hamas’s leadership structure and impose significant long-term military and economic costs on Israel.
Unlike Islamic Jihad, both Hamas and Israel have an interest in keeping the present round of hostilities short. The question is whether or not they’ll be able to.
The lack of a reaction to the death of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the absence of religious demands by protesters in Algeria, Sudan and Iraq suggest that political Islam is waning after the defeat of Islamic State three years ago.
According to the BDS movement’s Palestinian branch, the impact of the movement “is increasing substantially.” Many pro-Israel sites and organizations agree, but how accurate is this prognosis?
Hamas has failed to accomplish one of its signal goals: Nnothing it has done has succeeded in galvanizing the Arab population in Ramallah and Hebron to rise up against either Israel or the P.A.
To understand the Middle East, you have to think in Arabic and take religion much more seriously.
The grossly disproportionate aid given to the Palestinians, at the direct expense of much more beleaguered populations in Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa, exposes the self-righteous lie of equity and neutrality.
At one and the same time, the PA indirectly encourages terrorism while pursuing extensive security cooperation with Israel to quell it. Israel accepts this contradictory framework and will probably continue to do so, even during the succession crisis that is likely to follow Abbas’s demise.
Many want to avoid war and shower Gaza with economic aid before defeating Hamas. This would be an act of political delusion, not acumen.