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Radicals Cannot Be Bought Off with Economic Gains

(Israel Hayom) Dan Schueftan - Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told Israel's Channel 12 last week that he wrongly assessed that Hamas was looking for some sort of deal with Israel. "I thought we had an arrangement....[I] believed that if the residents of the Gaza Strip saw their wellbeing improve...their motivation for crises and wars would decrease. It seems I was wrong." Jews have been making this mistake for over a century. Yet it is an analytic and perceptual error that is prevalent among intellectuals who believe that pragmatic behavior indicates that the leaders are transitioning away from radicalism. Hizbullah, Hamas and the Iranian regime are radicals, even when they act pragmatically. Israel must deter them instead of believing that their aggressive and violent nature can be changed if their standard of living improved. Radicals are trying to persuade Jerusalem and Washington to grant them resources, such as rehabilitating the Strip and lifting sanctions on Iran, which would enable them to continue the war. The two governments must not be tempted to do so. The writer heads the International Graduate Program in National Security Studies at the University of Haifa.
2021-06-17 00:00:00
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