A thought experiment: Imagine that Hamas announces it will immediately cease and desist from firing missiles into Israel, that there will be no more such attacks in the future, and that it will release Gilad Shalit, the Israel soldier kidnapped two and a half years ago and held incommunicado ever since -- with not even the Red Cross allowed to see him. What would happen then?
Moderate Israelis would pressure their government to make a reciprocal gesture: to stop the air attacks on Hamas' command and control centers, release Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails and get serious peace talks under way.
But anyone who knows anything about Hamas also knows that such a scenario is implausible. Hamas was created to fight and win holy wars -- not to seek peace and sing "Kumbaya" with infidels. Hamas wants a Palestinian state in place of Israel -- not next door to Israel. And for Hamas, preventing Palestinian carnage is not a priority. That's not a slander; it's a fact. As Hamas parliamentarian Fathi Hamad eloquently phrased it: "We desire death as you desire life."
In 2005, Israelis undertook a real-life experiment: They said: "The Palestinians have a grievance: our occupation of Gaza and the West Bank -- even though we administer those territories as the consequence of a war launched to annihilate us. But if our presence provokes violence, let's see what results from our absence." That summer, Israel pulled every soldier and settler out of Gaza. Every house of worship and cemetery was removed. But greenhouses were left behind.
Palestinians might have responded by using those greenhouses to grow flowers for export. They might have built factories, schools, hospitals and hotels along their Mediterranean beaches. Had that been their choice, moderate Israelis surely would have made further concessions -- for example, uprooting Israelis from the West Bank as well, and offering to negotiate a division of Jerusalem.
Instead, of course, Palestinians smashed the greenhouses and put Hamas in charge. Since then, Hamas has done nothing to spark economic development. Nevertheless, it has bemoaned the increasing destitution of unoccupied Gaza -- now blaming it on Israel's "siege" -- and demanding aid, not least from Israel, which has given it, even as the rockets have fallen.
We should understand by now that when Hamas officials vow to fight Israel's "occupation," they are referring to any and all territory on which Israelis now exercise self-determination. Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, said: "Our goal is to liberate all of Palestine, from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea." Similarly, Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar has said: "We do not recognize the Israeli enemy, nor his right to be our neighbor, nor to stay, nor his ownership of any inch of land."
This is not merely a negotiating posture, on which there can be compromise once diplomats arrange meetings. It is, rather, a religious conviction. Article 11 of the Hamas Charters states unambiguously that "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (endowment) consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up."
In Hamas' view, a Muslim may do his duty and wage war for Israel's destruction. Or a Muslim may shirk his duty. There is no third option.
One final thought experiment: Imagine that Hamas someday achieves its goal and wipes Israel off the map. Would that be the end of the global conflict now being waged by militant Islamists? Or would the Khomeinists of Iran -- Hamas' chief benefactor -- al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and similar groups be energized and encouraged? Having vanquished the "Little Satan," what is the chance they could be sweet-talked out of continuing to battle the "Great Satan" in pursuit of the power and glory they believe is their due?
By contrast, if Israel can deliver a crippling blow to Hamas, the mission of the militant jihadists will appear to have lost Divine sanction. As my colleague, the historian Michael Ledeen, has noted: "Nothing is more devastating to a messianic movement than defeat."
(Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism.)
(Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. E-mail him at cliff(at)defenddemocracy.org)
Column
Gaza
There are dysfunctional families in which a drunken older brother routinely arrives home in a rage and beats the other family members. Such situations endure because part of the family's dysfunction is to blame the victim after each attack for "angering" the drunk and provoking the attack: "you know he gets angry, it was your fault he got that way."
The Palestinian people are angry, virtually all of the time. They were abandoned by their leaders and the Arab world in 1948, when the UN proposals for partition in Palestine were rejected by the Mullahs and Shieks, who chose war over Palestinian nationhood. Jordan and Egypt controlled the West Bank and Gaza respectively until 1967 and could easily have fashioned an independent Palestinian state if they cared to; instead using Palestinian homelessness as an irritant to keep anti-Israeli passions alive. Arafat stole billions from his people. Misguided Palestinian children have been used for suicide missions in the service of Saddam Hussein, Iran and the like. Israel leaves Gaza, and the Palestinian leadership, addicted to Israel, keeps enticing them back with rockets instead of building the first decent and autonomous Palestinian society. The Arab and Muslim worlds contain the most obscene disparities of wealth in the world, yet the gulf princes make a gaudy show on TV of striping jewelry off their arms into buckets for the "poor Palestinians," and then go off to build artificial islands just offshore from vast, empty terrain, without a further thought about their suffering "brothers" once the TV cameras are off.
Of course the Palestinians are angry; they are unloved and abondoned by the rich and powerful of their own Arab and Muslim people, who prefer to use them as cannon fodder and martyrs. It is Israel's job (or if you read the Arab press, the "Jews") to bear the brunt of that rage, endure medieval hatred and slander, take a beating, endure rockets and exploding Arab teenagers, lose a few casualties now and then, and not to rock the boat - in order to ensure that rockets don't land in France, Britain, Russian and elsewhere. That's Israel's "obligation" to the dysfunctional family of nations, and in her response to the latest rocket outrages from Gaza, Israel is signaling that this sick and dysfunctional arrangement, so comfortable for everyone else, is over.
Russell Golkow, MD
New York City
Hamas does'nt want peace
Hamas target will never be achieved,but on the way they are killing hundreds of their fellows
palestinians. They know deep down the truth,killing people,their own will not stop them
to get a little more imaginary fame, too bad those people around them cannot see the truth.
A 13 year old boy in Gaza said I blame the Hamas, just look at Egypt they have peace: his candid opinion was not obliterated by the Hamas publicity.
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