Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections after then-U.S. President George W. Bush pushed for the genocidal terrorist organization to be allowed to take part. |
It’s abundantly clear that the Palestinian elections, called for May, are a farce meant simply to placate the new U.S. administration. ...
A few days ago, the PA sent an official letter to the White House claiming that all factions, including Hamas, were committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. This has been held up as proof of a Palestinian commitment to a “two-state solution,” and of Hamas’s having signed on to such a commitment.
Neither has made such a commitment, however. The rhetoric is merely a smoke screen ... [for the] phased destruction of Israel ... [T]here is no mention of living alongside Israel peacefully, or recognizing the Jewish people’s rights to sovereignty in their ancestral and indigenous homeland. ...
Israel must act independently of international acquiescence. |
The State of Israel must not be confused; it has to act independently of international acquiescence.
Firstly, it must not allow Hamas to take part in the PA elections. Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections because of international pressure, most prominently from then-U.S. President George W. Bush, who pushed for the genocidal terrorist organization to be allowed to take part.
This was a major mistake for which the residents of Israel’s south are still paying. Hamas’s success in those elections emboldened and allowed it, through violence, to establish an Islamist stronghold on Israel’s southern border and—as it has showed repeatedly in the intermittent years—to create a sophisticated rocket arsenal capable of reaching most of the Jewish state.
Only groups that recognize Israel as the national Jewish homeland should take part in elections. |
Israel must not make the same mistake. It must declare loudly to the Palestinians and the international community that no armed group that threatens it will be allowed to take part in the elections. Any and every group that does want to take part must commit itself to explicitly recognizing the State of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people, without equivocation.
To many in the international community, this will seem like bullying tactics, but if the Palestinians are truly committed to a “two-state solution,” this should be an easy commitment, as recognizing the nature and permanence of the other state is in line with previous signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Most importantly, it will put an end to the tactic formulated in 1974, which created the principle for Israel’s destruction in stages. It will mean that the more-than-100-year Palestinian war of violent rejectionism against Jewish sovereignty is finally at an end.
It will mean its defeat and Israel’s victory.
This is an important opportunity for Israel to establish this principle and expose Palestinian hypocrisy. The Palestinians have been very good at playing the international community, by manipulating language and persuading it of Palestinian moderation.
Israel needs to use this occasion to expose the Palestinian end game for what it remains—the ultimate destruction of the Jewish state. Israeli leaders should be using the country’s extensive diplomatic apparatus to send this message to the international community. Only groups who lay down their weapons and recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people will be allowed to participate in these upcoming Palestinian elections.
This must be a sine qua non.
It is a reasonable demand, but one that no Palestinian faction, regardless of its perceived moderation or pragmatism, will be able to achieve. It will expose, once and for all, the ultimate Palestinian war aims, regardless of tactical differences, which are still held by groups across the Palestinian political spectrum.
Israel must use all of its diplomatic, economic and military power to defeat Palestinian rejectionism. |
Then, when the true face of violent Palestinian rejectionism is exposed, Israel should be given a freer hand to forcefully use all of its diplomatic, economic and military power to impose its will and finally defeat this rejectionism.
Such a tactic will give the Palestinians a choice: either end their war against Israel of their own volition, or Israel will end it for them. Then, and only then, can negotiations begin to ensure a safer and more secure region for all.
Alex Nachumson is a writer for the Israel Victory Project and CEO of Mivtachi Israel, an organization of former senior IDF officers.
