Making Hamas Irrelevant

When Benjamin Nethanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas come to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiating table next week, Hamas is bound to remain the jihadi elephant in the room.

Talks of swapping land for peace in the West Bank will predictably emerge, as will the contentious issues of Palestinian right of return and the division of Jerusalem. Although these issues are as central as they’ve ever been, they risk a degree of sophistry because the approaches towards a two-state solution have remained virtually unchanged in a region where the political landscape has altered itself drastically.

If there is to be a shift in politics, then there must be a shift in policy negotiation; one that accounts for the greatest and most disruptive obstacles to peace. Hamas has already proven how psychologically threatening it can be to peace, for instance, beginning its first wave of suicide bombings shortly after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords.

So what’s to be done? Hamas has already repeatedly rejected talks with Israel, and Israel finds it equally reprehensible that Hamas is still fixated on the liberation of all of historic Palestine rather than working towards statehood. Further raids on Gaza also appear equally unlikely, given the international scorn heaved upon Israel after Operation Cast Lead and the more recent Mavi Mamara incident. Additional sanctions on Gaza would tip the Strip’s dependency on Hamas’ Iranian backers even more, and likely earning more ire from the international community.

A solution already presented itself in January 2006. That's when Hamas won the legislative elections and then gave Fatah the boot and became the government (at least in the eyes of Gazans). But then they refused to give up violence after conquering the ballot box. Hamas made a critical mistake by rejecting the opportunity to go legit.

Hamas now has to balance itself as an effective resistance organization that is also responsible for making difficult government decisions, rather than criticizing moderate Palestinian leaders on the sidelines. It’s hard to rage against the machine when that's what you've become.

Hamas has shown some ingenuity by running a ‘tunnels authority’ that taxes the tunnel trade, giving Hamas an annual revenue tax base of up to $200 million USD in addition to the millions now donated by Iran. However, cracks in its public service administration abilities are beginning to show under its hardline stance against Israel.

The Gazan public is vehemently against renewing rocket attacks in light of the damages caused by Cast Lead and although Hamas is used to spending money sustaining its own mosques and charities, it is now responsible for all of Gaza, which is proving to be a challenge. Even with the tunnel trade and foreign backing, Hamas cannot afford to pay all of Gaza’s public offices and services.

Hamas has even begun to receive criticism in Gaza from an unexpected quarter, Salafi jihadists boasting connections to Al-Queda, apparently on the grounds that Hamas isn’t Islamic enough and that it has given up the resistance. But again, Gazans are weary of this strategy of perpetual violence.

Given Hamas’ self-imposed rock and hard place position, it would be in the best interests of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to create a situation that exploits their conundrum and puts pressure on Hamas to moderate their politics.

One such possibility, although controversial, would be to fast track statehood to only the West Bank, effectively demonstrating a real win for Abbas and Fatah while placing heavy demands on Hamas from Gaza to relent and recognize Israel in order to negotiate Gazan statehood.

Israel could do groundwork to prepare for immigration from Gaza to the West Bank, or operate an exchange program which would also dilute the influx of Gazans that are smuggled through the tunnels to train in jihadi camps in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Any retaliations from Hamas towards this peace deal would be looked upon with ridicule and resentment from moderate Palestinians. Possibly, this would be Hamas’ death knell for shrugging off yet another opportunity to take responsibility as a state actor and broker a better life for Gazans.

Dave Zeglen is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist.