Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Israel, unable to stop the Hamas war, has been examining whether it should re-capture the Gaza Strip.

Senior ministers have raised the prospect that Israel must end Hamas’ seven-year rule over the Gaza Strip. They said the continuation of the Hamas war despite Israeli concessions could result in the re-capture of the area from which Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2005.

“Quiet can no longer be achieved by diplomatic means, only by military means,” Communications Minister Gilad Erdan said.

Erdan said Israel’s only choice was to re-occupy the Gaza Strip. He said negotiations with Hamas, demanded by the United States, has failed.

“The negotiations with Hamas do not serve Israel’s security interests, and there’s no point in continuing them,” Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, regarded as the No. 2 figure in the Likud Party, said.

Many of the ministers were said to have agreed that Israel, which came under continued rocket fire on Aug. 20, did not have a diplomatic option.

They said Israel’s agreement to negotiate with Hamas encouraged rocket attacks and harmed deterrence.

“The government policy of ‘calm will be met with calm’ is fundamentally wrong,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a former ally of Netanyahu, said. “We need to talk and negotiate with Hamas only when it has surrendered. We now must seek a quick and decisive end to Hamas.”

Government sources said the Cabinet has reached a stalemate regarding a strategy against Hamas. They said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have argued that Israel’s priority was not to lose the United States as an ally.

In mid-August, President Barack Obama canceled planned arms sales to Israel, including that of the AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missile, a key weapon in the war against Hamas. Since then, the sources said, Netanyahu, chafing under increasing criticism from his Cabinet, agreed to U.S. conditions for the lifting of the siege of the Gaza Strip, including the establishment of a sea port.

“My advice is to do what I did: Lend a hand and speak less,” Netanyahu, addressing ministers, told a news conference on Aug. 20.

For its part, Hamas has been under pressure from its allies not to cooperate with Egypt. On Aug. 20, the Saudi-owned daily Al Hayat quoted a senior Palestinian official as saying that Qatar, which hosts the Hamas leadership, has demanded a direct role in the ceasefire negotiations.

“Without a diplomatic move, without wide international support, any attempt to reach an agreement will be the beginning of the countdown to another round of violence,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who supports U.S. intervention, said.

  Avigdor Lieberman, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gideon Saar, Gilad Erdan, Israel must re-capture Gaza, Israeli ministers weighing option of re-capturing Gaza: ‘No point in continuing’ diplomacy