TEL AVIV — The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said the Israeli government
must halt unilateral withdrawals in wake of the Hamas victory in Palestinian
legislative elections. Instead, Israel must work with the international
community to force Hamas to end its support of terrorism.
"It's time to think out of the box," the report said. "A careful
analysis of the unexpected and crushing Hamas win in the PLC elections leads
to a counter-intuitive conclusion: the Hamas victory can play to Israel's
favor — if Israel and Western leaders intelligently calibrate their
responses to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority."
The report said the Hamas victory could end the double game played by
the ruling Fatah movement and the PA, Middle East Newsline reported. This consisted of a PA that agreed to
negotiate with Israel while enabling armed groups to attack the Jewish
state.
"Thus, Israel should be able to get the U.S. and the EU to press for
strong linkage between the granting of international aid — without which
the PA will utterly collapse — and the dismantling of both the Hamas and
Fatah terrorist arms," the report said. "Hamas also can and should be
pressured to end its anti-semitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Western
incitement."
The report, authored by Hillel Frisch, said the Hamas victory serves Israel's interest in any effort
to confront Palestinian terrorism. Frisch predicted that Hamas would fail to
govern, "leaving open the possibility in the longer term for the emergence
of a more mature Palestinian leadership."
"For its part, Israel must not spoil the Hamas-led PA government with
Israeli political eagerness to achieve quick-fix solutions," the report, said. "It would be extremely harmful now for
Israel to engage in unilateral withdrawals or premature negotiations with
the Hamas-led Palestinian government."
The report doubted whether Hamas would end government corruption. As a
result, Frisch envisioned an immediate Palestinian need of Western funding.
Frisch said Israel must use its military to prevent Hamas from
sustaining attacks. He said the military should target Hamas leaders. In
2003, Israel assassinated two Hamas leaders.
"The targeting of these people made them think again about continuing
with terrorism, and pushed them into politics," the report said. "Simply
put, they want to live. If Israel remains on guard and acts resolutely and
quickly to snuff out any and all Hamas leaders who return to terrorism —
Hamas can be kept in line."
