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NY Times story confirms that Netanyahu kept Hamas in power. [1]

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Date: 2023-10-23  

The story is nominally about the beleaguered peacemakers in Israel and Palestine, but the money quote is deep within:

All means were good to undo the notion of Palestinian statehood. In 2019, Mr. Netanyahu told a meeting of his center-right Likud party: “Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy.”

Put differently, Netanyahu supported the Palestinian Leopards Eating Faces party because he didn’t think the leopards would eat Israeli faces, as he wanted the excuse of an unreasonable governing entity in Gaza to prevent a peace agreement. The Times story confirms the rumor. It wasn’t that Hamas was all that popular among Palestinians, though certainly extremists do gain popularity from oppression, but the settler movement in the West Bank wanted to use Hamas to keep the P.A. weak.

Hamas, of course, also doesn’t want a peace agreement. They are a movement that grows out of anger, and the Israeli bombing of civilian targets in Gaza has probably made Hamas stronger, not weaker. Wrestlers cry uncle, peoples don’t. Thus sadly, Hamas may well come out closer to their goal, their brutal attack on civilians a kind of success, albeit costly. Israel needs to find a way to contain the damage. But that isn’t Netanyahu’s own agenda, or for that matter competence.

And if you can read it, Roger Cohen’s whole Times article is worth the read.

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