How to Contain Hamas

Often, the rhetoric of Middle East Peacemaking gets bogged down in idealism. What is needed is not idealism, but pragmatism. Most people want peace. Those who don't, don't deserve to be factored into the equation. On a pragmatic level however, it is the warmakers, and not the peacemakers, who are most important to a long and lasting peace.

Hamas, which does not wants peace and seeks the destruction of Israel, is the one with the guns, bombs and rockets, who not only controls internal Gaza infrastructure, but also is the one with the power to prevent peace. The Israeli army does want peace in the abstract, though the degree of that desire can be debated. If provoked however, it will not hesitate to act, thus continuing the "cycle of violence".

With the USSR, the key strategy was containment. Legal and economic sanctions, good intelligence (which history has later on proved may have not been so good) and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction kept a cold peace between the two super-powers. The USSR however, was essentially a rational government. Hamas does not care about the death, either of its own members or of its civilians. They are all martyrs who must be sacrificed for the goal of destroying Israel.

So what is to be done? First of all, the world must refuse to talk to Hamas and must cut off all of its financial resources. It must predicate acceptance of Hamas not upon acceptance of Israel, but upon willingness to adhere completely (no rockets) to a temporary cease-fire, along with a free press internationally monitered by a committee comprising of a Palestinian, an Israeli, and American, and a an EU representative. The UN has proved itself too corrupt to be trusted. Israel should offer conditional working cards to Gaza residents. The condition? Proving that one is not a Hamas member. Proving this could be difficult, but a signed revocation of Hamas, along with a personal reference, should suffice. Hamas has long gained support by running soup kitchens. Getting food meant loyalty to Hamas. Now it is time to force people to choose between food and Hamas, while also giving Palestinians a chance to work in Israel. Instead of bombarding Gaza from the sky, Israel should simply engage in targetted assasinations of Hamas leaders, both in Gaza and elsewhere. (though not in the West Bank, out of defference to Fatah) These targetted assasinations sometimes result in civilian casualties, but would result in less civilian casualties than the current air-bombings.

Furthermore, Israel must work hand-in-hand with Fatah to make the West Bank a desirable place to live that all Gazans will be jealous of. Providing jobs for Palestinians, and helping to start Palestinian businessess for Fatah supporters within the West Bank through small, low-interest loans, while helping Palestinians with no records of anti-Israel activity and no membership to militant groups to both attend Israeli university and to obtain jobs within Israel is a start. Israeli agricultural experts should work with Fatah experts to help them utilize the West Bank's natural resources. Israeli and Palestinian economists should help Fatah to engage in a healthy economic plan that allows it to provide vital social services. Economic success in the West Bank, besides weakening Hamas, also encourages peace. People with dignity and food in their stomachs are less likely to want to become suicide bombers. The pscyhological effect of poverty can not be under-estimated. Furthermore, if one looks at global conflict, it tends to center around extremely poor areas and can be seen as resource competition (in a land war, please keep in mind that land is a resource that can produce food) or extremely rich areas where greedy governments each want the wealth for themselves.

Mahmoud Abbas should be personally invited to dine with Shimon Peres, not as a politician, but as his personal guest. This is to prove good faith to Palestinians and show Hamas supporters that while Hamas can get nowhere with Israel, Fatah engages Israel to help its own people and commands Israeli respect. Furthermore, all Fatah prisoners without blood on their hands who were not caught in the process of trying to bloody their hands should be released, which snubs Hamas and shows Palestinians with loved ones in jail that it is Fatah, not Hamas, who will get those loved ones home. Checkpoints within the West Bank should be decreased, making life easier for everyday Palestinians. But checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel should be heightened in security, and become almost like border crossings, in order to ensure that no dangerous extremists are making it into Israel. There should be more soldiers per checkpoint, to lessen the burden of each individual soldier. The checkpoint soldiers should be given special sensitivity training, special perks, and monthly therapy sessions in order to deal with the trauma of working at a checkpoint. Right now, checkpoint soldiers are the most neglected. Furthermore, since they come in to face to face contact with Palestinians daily, checkpoint soldiers are in a powerful position to influence the sentiments of individual Palestinians towards Israel and Israelis.

There may be time later to argue about who has justice on their side, whether actions were provocations and responses were disproprotionate, and what exactly the borders of Palestine should be. Right now, the key issue is to contain Hamas and try to obtain peaceful conditions, so that later on permanent-status negotiations occur in a peaceful atmosphere. Because all residents of Israel and Palestine deserve to live in peace. The sooner we can help them acheive that peace, the better. Politics be damned.