JERUSALEM — Israel's domestic security agency has deemed Hamas a
strategic threat to the Jewish state.
Israel Security Agency chief Yuval Dichter said Hamas was becoming as great a
threat to Israel as a nuclear Iran. Dichter said Hamas has become the
lightening rod for Iranian and Muslim efforts to destroy the Jewish state.
The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval
Steinitz said unless Israel acts quickly Hamas could form a government
within several weeks that would receive Arab and Islamic support. He
envisioned the new Hamas government signing defense pacts with Iran and Arab
states.
In testimony to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
Dichter portrayed a Palestinian Authority that has become an implacable
enemy of Israel, Middle East Newsline reported. Dichter raised the prospect that Iran as well as Arab
rivals of Israel would pour weapons and fighters into the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip.
"The establishment of a radical Islamic Hamas state along the borders of
Israel, with the participation of radical Islamic groups, might have
military options that would constitute a strategic threat against Israel,"
Diskin said on Monday.
This was the first time an Israeli security chief termed Hamas a
strategic threat. Both government and military leaders have regarded Iran --
with nuclear weapons and intermediate-range missile programs -- as the
leading threat to Israel. In contrast, the Palestinian threat has long been
viewed as manageable.
The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval
Steinitz, said Hamas and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who also leads the
ruling Fatah Party, have sought to ensure than any Hamas-led government
would continue to receive international funding. Steinitz said Abbas,
despite his expressed opposition to Hamas's agenda, has been in steady
contact with the Islamic movement since it won Palestinian legislative
elections on Jan. 25.
"The goal is to prevent Israel from eliminating Hamas's capability
through a sort of Fatah umbrella and the successful game of bad cop, good
cop," Steinitz said. "There is greater coordination than we thought, also
through telephone, between Hamas and Abu Mazen [Abbas]."
The committee chairman, whose views often reflect the nation's military
and intelligence agencies, called on Israel to immediately isolate Hamas
leaders and prevent the convening of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Steinitz cited the two-year Israeli siege on the late PA Chairman Yasser
Arafat.
"If we don't do this [against Hamas], we will confront a strategic
threat and a disaster," Steinitz said.
For his part, Dichter told the Knesset committee that Hamas has enhanced
the Kassam-class, short-range missile in the Gaza Strip. He said Hamas has
relayed Kassam and other missile and rocket expertise to operatives in the
West Bank.
The ISA chief warned Israel against accepting any Hamas offer of a
long-term ceasefire. Dichter termed such an offer a "honey trap," and warned
that this would prevent Israel from retaliating against attacks by other
Palestinian insurgency groups.
"If there is a ceasefire, Hamas will use it to stabilize its rule and
form a fundamentalist extremist Islamic entity with terrorist capabilities,"
Dichter said. "Hamas has a lot of patience, just like the Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt."
Dichter said a Hamas-dominated Palestinian state would encourage
irredentism among Israeli Arabs, who comprise more than 20 percent of the
Jewish state. He cited the bloody Israeli Arab protests in 2000, designed to
support the Palestinians in their war against Israel. Thirteen Arabs were
killed in clashes with Israeli police.
The Knesset committee was told that Palestinian insurgents in Bethlehem
acquired an Israel Army-issue mortar for strikes against neighboring
Jerusalem. Dichter said the Fatah insurgents were captured on Feb. 19 and
the mortar was seized.
"As far as we know, this is the first time high-trajectory weapons meant
to be fired toward Jerusalem have been found," Dichter said.
Later, a government statement said the Fatah insurgents were led by a
Palestinian security officer who operated from PA security facilities in
Bethlehem. The statement said the insurgency cell was instructed by the
Fatah-aligned Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip to launch
mortar and other attacks against Jerusalem. The statement said a launcher,
eight mortar rounds and a machine gun were captured.
"Several members of the infrastructure, some of whom were detained
recently, were fugitives who operated out of PA buildings in Bethlehem where
they were protected from possible arrest," the communique said. "The
infrastructure was led by Jabr Fouaz Eid Akhras, a member of the PA
National Security Service, originally from the Gaza Strip but who currently
resides in Bethlehem."
Officials said Hamas has been cooperating with other insurgency groups,
particularly the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad. The army has launched an
operation to dismantle the infrastructure of Jihad and Fatah in the northern
West Bank city of Nablus.
"Nablus has become one of the primary producers of explosive belts and
bombs, which are systematically manufactured and transferred to different
terrorist infrastructures in Judea and Samaria [West Bank], to be used
against Israel," an Israeli security source said on Monday.
So far, the army has killed Jihad commander in Nablus, Ajmad Abu Shayih,
and arrested seven Palestinian insurgents. Security sources said those
arrested included Ahmed Marshoud, a 22-year-old directed by Jihad in the
Gaza Strip to arrange for suicide strikes in Israel.
Another detainee was Iyad Massimi, identified as a Fatah operative and
leading bombmaker in Nablus. The sources said Massimi was preparing
explosive belts for suicide attacks against Israeli military and civilian
targets.