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Endgame for Palestine

[ISN-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology] Harvey Sicherman - Since June 2002, as an essential element of an overall settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, American policy has sought to foster the creation of a democratic Palestinian state that is opposed to terrorism. The U.S. attributed the failed Camp David Summit of 2000 and the subsequent intifada largely to Arafat's malevolence. Hamas' January 2006 election victory dealt a blow to U.S. policy. Apparently, Arafat's Palestine was to be displaced not by Bush's democratic vision, represented by Abbas, but rather by Hamas, an Islamist party (its ideology not far from that of bin Laden's) and increasingly influenced by Syria and Iran. The Palestinians had elected a party that repudiated Oslo and sought Israel's destruction through terrorism. U.S. policy has no answer to the most important recent military developments. This is the view, shared by Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran and Syria, that they have found a way to deter if not negate Israel's military advantages, thereby enabling them to damage Israel with relative impunity. By deploying well-trained troops that use Palestinian civilians as shields and Israeli civilians as the targets, largely through missile fire, Hamas hopes to duplicate Hizbullah's feat during the Second Lebanon War. Without a military solution to this challenge, Hamas will be able to bring about a violent interruption of any negotiation that looks like success. The author is president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state.
2007-08-01 01:00:00
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