|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22657/paper-agreements-will-not-disarm-terrorists
Paper Agreements Will Not Disarm Terrorists
(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - For decades, Western diplomats and decision-makers have clung to the most dangerous belief that Islamist terrorist organizations can be persuaded through negotiations and diplomatic agreements to surrender their weapons and abandon their jihad (holy war) against Israel. More than seven months after President Trump unveiled his peace plan for Gaza, Hamas remains armed, entrenched, and firmly in control of large parts of the territory. Now Washington has brokered another ambitious agreement - between Israel and Lebanon - that seeks to restore Lebanese sovereignty by eventually disarming Hizbullah and dismantling its military infrastructure. Unfortunately, the Lebanon agreement risks proving impossible to implement because it rests on a false assumption: that terrorist organizations honor agreements and voluntarily disarm. Washington continues to negotiate as if Hamas were a rational political movement rather than a jihadist organization whose declared objective is Israel's destruction. It continues to recruit fighters, rebuild its military infrastructure, and prepare for future attacks against Israel. Its leaders openly reject demands to disarm while insisting that the group's weapons are "non-negotiable." The framework agreement signed between Israel and Lebanon deserves recognition for several positive elements. It formally commits both countries to pursue peaceful relations, seeks to restore the authority of the Lebanese state, provides for a process aimed at dismantling Hizbullah's military infrastructure, and includes an important provision designed to prevent reconstruction funds from reaching Hizbullah. The problem is that Hizbullah has already made clear that it has no intention of allowing the agreement to succeed.