“Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor”

YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI, AUTHOR, “LETTERS TO MY PALESTINIAN NEIGHBOR”: The great achievement undoubtedly belongs to Hamas. I say that with a great deal of pain and anxiety for the future of both of our peoples. Hamas is not a partner for a peace agreement. Hamas is, by its own definition, a partner only for a war against Israel’s existence. And so to strengthen Hamas, which is the outcome of this — of this conflict, is, I think, ultimately a tragedy for both peoples. The reason that I say that Hamas has been strengthened, for all the reasons that Ben Wedeman cited, but I would I would add one more reason, which is that Hamas is the weakest of Israel’s military enemies. We are surrounded on our borders by Hezbollah, Syria, Iranian troops that are establishing themselves in Syria. And Hamas is by far the weakest of the threats that Israel faces. The ultimate threat, of course, is Iran. And so for Hamas to be able to sustain the worst wave of rocket attacks on the greater Tel Aviv area that Israel has ever experienced — Hamas would announce, today, at noon, we’re going to hit Tel Aviv — to be able to strike with relative impunity, and Israel was not able to stop these strikes, I think, really is very worrying for Israel’s long term deterrences. And, again, any strengthening of Hamas is a weakening for our ability to envision a different future.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: And yet, time and time again, we have been hearing from analysts that say that this works to the benefit of the Netanyahu government, that having a — quote, unquote — “terrorist organization” running Gaza, that is, Hamas, and not dealing directly with the Palestinian Authority in focusing on a solution for a two-state area there, one for Palestinians and one for Israelis, is something that benefits the Netanyahu government. That has been said time and time again. Is that part of the problem? And is that a harsh assessment, or is it accurate?

KLEIN HALEVI: Well, first of all, I would take exception with putting these heavy quotation marks around the phrase Hamas is a terrorist organization, an organization that not only declares the existence of Israel illegitimate, but targets Israeli civilians as its principal means of waging war, is the classic definition of a terrorist group.