Channel 12 News pundit Amnon Abramovich, the last adherent of the obsolete doctrine calling for a Palestinian state, was in the studio recently, commenting on the latest escalation.
It was as though he was oblivious to the 25 bloody years that have resulted from that doctrine.
He even suggested linking Judea and Samaria to the Gaza Strip by putting the Palestinian Authority in charge of the coastal enclave, thus suffocating Israel’s southern residents in a pincer movement.
He also suggested uprooting Israeli communities and crushing Hamas using our soldiers’ blood. This is how he would like to ensure peace in our time.
Israel withdrew from Gaza and satisfied the appetite of the haters of the settlement enterprise. After we destroyed Gaza’s Jewish communities, what did we get in return? Blood, fire and billowing smoke.
In Judea and Samaria, in stark contrast to what we did in the Gaza Strip, we reasserted control, with the Israel Defense Forces successfully defending Israel from Palestinian terrorism and protecting the local Arab population from Hamas, which plots to take over their cities.
Thus we have two models for dealing with the conflict: the one we used in Gaza and the one we used in Judea and Samaria.
Lo and behold, unlike what Abramovich and his fellow false prophets have predicted, the problematic model turned out to be the Gaza one, which produced a hotbed of terrorism.
What’s guiding our enemy in Gaza is not rational thought or the welfare of its subjects (this is also true for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has refused to accept funds because Israel is deducting the sums used by the P.A. to pay terrorists).
Logic will not convince our enemy, and neither will peace talks. We must not shed our sons’ blood just so we can hand over Gaza to Abbas, who has not been able to govern Ramallah, let alone the P.A.
Any attempt to analyze Hamas and other terrorist groups using Western tools, as if they were normative entities, is futile.
Hamas has been unable to take over P.A.-held areas because of Israel’s presence. If we want to crush Hamas, as some of the pundits have suggested, we may need to reconquer the Gaza Strip and run it ourselves, because the P.A. will not do the dirty work for us. It is incapable of doing so.
Islam, loyalty to the clan, and tribalism are stronger in Palestinian society than any form of artificial and secular nationalism.
Just look at how the Middle East is unraveling, no longer wearing the Western-imposed straitjacket nationalism it got after World War I. It is now reverting to a mosaic of tribes and clans. The Hamas charter of 1988, drafted by Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin, whom Israel assassinated, presents a more accurate description of our enemy than any meaningless piece of paper the group might sign.
It is a document everyone should read, as it shows just how those talking of a Palestinian and secular state lack sound judgment.
The charter includes a quotation attributed to Hassan Al-Bana, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that uses Hamas as its organ.
Al-Bana said that “Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out, as it wiped out what went before.”
The charter says Hamas’s goals include: “A war to the death … until the reinstitution of an Islamic state.”
Are those goals limited to Gaza? Well, the charter stipulates that the “the land of Palestine is a religious Islamic endowment [waqf] for all Muslims until Resurrection Day. It is forbidden to relinquish it or any part of it or give it up or any part of it.”
Article 13 of the charter notes that peace talks are pointless: “There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except jihad. Regarding the international initiatives, suggestions and conferences, they are a waste of time and complete nonsense.” The charter then goes on to say that jihad is “the only way to liberate [Palestine]. There is no doubt as to the true proof of history.”
Reading these passages, it becomes abundantly clear that any talk of a missed opportunity to strike a deal with Hamas sounds like irresponsible chatter.
Dror Eydar has been appointed Israeli ambassador to Italy.
This article first appeared on Israel Hayom.
