Dealing with Hamas

Efforts to contain Hamas successful so far, but what's the next step?

Ephraim Halevy|Published: 08.03.07 , 08:12

In recent weeks Hamas suffered some harsh blows throughout the Arab world and in the international arena – this is a positive and important development.

On the one hand, the Arab League declared its support for Mahmoud Abbas' and Salam Fayyad's government, while on the other hand President Putin announced Russia's support for this cabinet, and a Russian spokesperson made clear that Moscow would downgrade talks with Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyeh and other nefarious figures.

The governments of Israel and the US are funneling economic and security aid to the Palestinian Authority, and the Gaza Strip is more sealed off than ever before. The pressure exerted on the ostracized Hamas is increasing, and here and there its leaders are making sounds of distress. This is all very good news, and it attests to the success of the containment diplomacy and the de-legitimization of the Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.

As long as this policy prevails, and as long as its immediate implications are visible, the Israeli government will have to come up with a more accurate definition of its objective or objectives.

If its objective is to weaken Hamas and make it lose its hold on Gaza, it would be important for officials in charge of assessing the situation to ascertain that there is a good or reasonable chance that the measures being taken will suffice to achieve this. It would be important to ensure that a real chance exists that Fatah will resume its rule in the Strip in parallel to the stabilization of its cabinet in the West Bank.

If the current measures are insufficient, the cabinet would have to decide, along with the heads of the Palestinian Authority and the American Administration, on ancillary diplomatic, economic and security measures that would be required to achieve the objective.

It would most certainly be necessary to assess whether there is a real chance that the Hamas government will collapse vis-à-vis the current pressures without the need for an ancillary military operation.

Amid the apparent success of this policy thus far we can hope, and maybe propose, that the cabinet make clear to the public what the assessment is and what this policy's realistic objective is.

Different rules for non-state actors

As noted, Hamas has experienced one of its less positive periods since it demonstratively pounded Fatah forces with brute force. In this context, the article by Ambassador Dennis Ross, who is among the most proficient Middle East envoys in the past 20 years, should be noted.

His article entitled "Talk to me" published on August 1st in the New Republic, discussed US policy towards the "bad guys."

Ross makes the distinction between countries such as Iran and Syria and non-state actors such as Hamas and Hizbullah. He advocates dialogue with the countries, yet argues that the rules applied to non-state actors are different and much harsher.

"Take the example of Hamas, a non-state actor now dominant in Gaza. We cannot ignore that providing assistance to Gaza now requires someone to deal with Hamas. It need not be us, but total isolation and a cut-off could produce a humanitarian disaster. If we don't want others in the international community to feel compelled to establish normal contacts with Hamas, we need to forge an international consensus on how to deal with the realities in Gaza," Ross writes.

"There is a need to avoid a humanitarian crisis. There may be a need to permit at least some limited commerce to prevent a complete economic collapse. But if Hamas wants developmental assistance or investment coming to Gaza, they should have to play by the basic rules of the game - one of which is stopping attacks against Israel. Hamas should have to adjust to the world, not the other way around," he says.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Ross didn’t list the other conditions.

Ross's advice has always been a vital necessity sought by generations of Israeli leaders. In any situation, as Ross says, someone needs to deal with Hamas.