The Washington Post weighed in today on the history of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in promoting Hamas, in order to stall the peace process and to disrupt the Palestinian Authority. The Post cites Israeli historian Adam Raz on the “strange alliance…. In the last ten years, Netanyahu worked to block any attempt at demolishing Hamas in Gaza.” Pitting Hamas in Gaza against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank made for a structural block against the two-state solution, allowing Netanyahu to ignore the UN-mandated policy (and the policy agreed to by Israel and the Palestinian Authority prior to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin).
The Washington Post reported today on how Netanyahu’s governments supported having Qatari funds go to the Hamas authorities in Gaza, and approved regular prisoner releases that apparently benefitted Hamas. The Post cited Israeli pollster and analyst Dahlia Scheindlin: “With no unified leadership, he was able to say he couldn’t move forward with peace negotiations. It allowed him to say, ‘There is no one to talk to.’”
While Netanyahu’s office refused comment on the Post’s story, an unnamed Israeli official provided the hackneyed defense that Netanyahu had “hit Hamas harder than any prime minister in history.” The Washington Post could have added that such is pretty much how “gang/countergang” operations work.
