From Bad to Unthinkable
Make no mistake: Hamas has not changed its spots. The terrorism it sponsors and advocates is unabated. Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel and attempts more suicide bombings. Its leaders refuse to release a kidnapped Israeli soldier, and it nourishes mass smuggling of arms into Gaza, including rockets that are longer in range, more accurate, and more lethal, enabling them to threaten larger parts of Israel. We must remember that Hamas remains critically allied with Iran, which provides substantial military aid and training to Hamas members. Tehran is Hamas's most vocal supporter. Iran—and Hezbollah—provide military instructors, to the point that Hamas activity in Gaza is approaching that of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The area under Hamas control—to wit, Gaza—remains the prime source of terrorism against Israel. Last year, the number of rocket attacks from there increased threefold over 2005.
The Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, who lives in Syria, continues to assert publicly that he would do anything to destroy the State of Israel. Hamas spokesmen continue to insist that they will not recognize the legitimacy of the "Zionist entity." The head of the Fatah parliamentary bloc, Azam al-Ahmed, says the issue of recognition of Israel never even came up for discussion in Mecca. Hamas can now prevent Palestinians from being able to carry out any commitment that will make any peace process meaningful and important. Israel, to state the obvious, cannot sit down with someone aiming a gun at its head.
The effect of the Mecca agreement was to bring Abbas and the PA closer to Hamas instead of bringing Hamas closer to Abbas. In effect, Hamas has radicalized the PA's government and undermined the moderates in the region. The Mecca effect is seen in the reaction of a perceived moderate, Jibril Rajoub, the former head of PA security in the West Bank. He appeared on TV not to say that the agreement threatened prospects for peace but to declare that the Palestinians will win back every inch of land between the river and the sea. And the "moderate" Abbas? Here are his words: "We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation." Abbas is now the nominal leader of the unified Palestinians but, in fact, the junior partner and mouthpiece of Hamas. He is now effectively yoked to the Hamas objective of eliminating Israel once and for all.
Unsurprisingly, as far as the Israelis are concerned, Abbas is toast. He is now incapable of carrying out any agreements that might have been reached with the Israelis, so the quartet's road map to peace has hit a dead end. The tragedy of Abbas's capitulation in Mecca is that the deal he made effectively killed a secret but promising initiative of Jordan's King Abdullah. Abdullah's plan was to reach an agreement on final-status terms through negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians and use that as the basis of a new general election among the Palestinians, led by Abbas, that would topple the Hamas government. The king promised he would make an effort to gain the support of the moderate Arab states for his plan, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, and get them to recognize Israel once the peace settlement was signed. King Abdullah's objective was to produce stability, to lower the level of terrorism and tension in the region, and to stymie the Shiite revolution, led by Iran, that is so balefully expanding its influence across the region. Abbas's Mecca moment has all but blotted out this one chink of light.
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