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Undermining Hamas: A Pragmatic Strategy
How can we undermine Hamas and bolster Palestinian moderates? I discuss this question in a post at Foreign Policy Watch.
4 Responses to “Undermining Hamas: A Pragmatic Strategy”
I agree, we should stay away from directly supporting Fatah, even if the effort was successful they would be seen as a pawn of the US and not be able to control Hamas actions against Israel. We also might throw Hamas and the small but growing Al Qeada groups together against a common “enemyâ€. However the trouble with the peace progress is that Israel will be looking at an and to terrorist attacks, and unfortunately that is something no Palestinian government can guarantee. I am still of the opinion that the best course for Israel is to wall itself off [and decide the border on Israeli terms] and ignore the Palestinians other than retaliation for rocket attacks. Not a great solution but I can no longer see dialog producing any results, too much bad past history to over come by both sides.
grognard – Having Israel wall itself off is a solution but not the best. If Israel completes the “fence” along it’s present route, I guarantee the rockets will be flying over it. Israel will retaliate and then more rockets will fly etc etc etc etc. Unilateral withdrawal will only lead to the West Bank becoming like Gaza. Both sides have to negotiate and have any agreement ratified by a vote of it’s people. That will provide the buy in both sides need to enforce an agreement. We already know approximately what the final deal will be – close to Taba and the Geneva Accords.
Unfortunately, neither side will risk losing face by voluntarily agreeing to this paln. It has to be rammed down both their throats by either the US or UN or some combination thereof. Meanwhile, many more will die so politicians can look brave and macho.
jdledell, I just don’t see the political will to reach an agreement anymore, certainly not from Hamas. In order to have an agreement Israel would have to some assurance that no matter what Palestinian government was in power the agreement would remain in force, with a Hamas government that is not possible. The wall is a bad solution out of many bad solutions, this has been going on since the creation of the state of Israel and will be still going on long after we are gone.
I think Jeb is basically right. His point #2 seems a bit weak, simply because it doesn’t draw a line or really discuss situations where it would be vital to provide Fatah with weapons to prevent being obliterated by Hamas, or provide any evidence on why the current situation is different.
I think the best way of undermining radical groups is to undermine their powerbase, which is derived from psychology and the dependence of the Palestinian people. Hamas and other groups exploit the “us vs them” tendency that is natural in ALL humans to paint the current situation as a war against outsiders who are here to harm them. At the same time, they provide a number of critical services to the Palestinian people, which they can’t get elsewhere. To remove both of these in one fell swoop, we just need to have the US government start providing aid directly to the Palestinian people. Instead of spending $1mil on making Fatah media savy, drop $1mil worth of rice/beans and drinking water all over Palestine with big “Made in the US” logos everywhere, and pamphlets describing how the US stands with the Palestinian people. If the people get the food, they (or at least some of their children) can’t help but feel a bit grateful to the people that fed them, and if Hamas or other groups prevent the supplies from reaching the people, well then you have just created a situation where ‘us’ is the palestian people, and ‘them’ is hamas, which works directly against their power base. Put a handful of smart psychologists and sociologists in control of the timing of these drops, and I bet you could have a weaker Hamas within a year.