Anca Segall

Amos Oz, Israeli author in 1995 stated in his NYT article “Hamas therefore should be seen as the most effective collaborator of the extreme right in Israel.“ Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, military governor of Gaza in the early 80s told how he helped finance Hamas as a counterweight to the secularist and leftist PLO and FATAH party lead by Yasser Arafat who himself referred to Hams as a “Creature of Israel” Avner Cohen, former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than 2 decades told the Wall Street Journal in 2009 “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation”. Avner himself wrote a report warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing up Islamist militants against Palestinian secularists. “I suggest focussing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face”. Netanyahu was warned over and over again about the dangers of Hamas, yet he himself declared in 2019: “Hamas are our partner, we must ensure they are well funded”. Each Hamas offensive has driven Israeli politics further and further right, this suits Netanyahu, who is adamant will never offer the Palestinians a state under any conditions. It has been more important to Likud to keep Hamas funded, the Palestinian people between Gaza and the West Bank divided and the two state solution, dead in the water. The violent actions of Hamas have always been exploited by the Israeli right to justify their policies and ongoing treatment of Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank. It is time to accept this policy is untenable, as it has been for decades, it is time to offer a peaceful solution, encourage other voices that want to engage in the Peace process and stop stalling in offering the indigenous Palestinians the rights we all take for granted.