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Hamas Victory Now a Major Issue in Israeli Election Campaign
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, center, and members of his cabinet confer in the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem. Hamas's election victory has become a focal point of Israel's election campaign.
(By Amos Ben Gershom -- Government Press Office Via Reuters)
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The Hamas victory, Schueftan said, could allow the Israeli government to proceed with another unilateral withdrawal from land in the West Bank, which Palestinians envision as part of their future state. Last year, Sharon ordered the withdrawal of all Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip, the other part of a prospective Palestinian state. Schueftan said a withdrawal from parts of the West Bank was already "the tacit platform of Kadima."
"The choices were between terrorists, impotents and hooligans," said Schueftan, who is also deputy director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa. "From an Israeli point of view, will this make things worse? No. Will this make things better? No. Would a different result have made a difference? No."
Gabriel Sheffer, a political science professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: "We should wait and see what happens inside the Palestinian government. But in any event, Olmert, his advisers and his followers face a big dilemma."
"The questions begin with: Do you talk to Hamas and, if so, what do you talk to them about?" Sheffer said. "I think Olmert will try to restrain the military, and try to find ways, probably not directly, to talk to Hamas."
Yossi Klein Halevi, another senior fellow at the Shalem Center, which holds mostly hawkish views on security matters, said, "Israel will now hold political Hamas directly responsible for the actions of military Hamas."
"There will now be one address at the Palestinian Authority where Israel can respond," Halevi said.
Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, who advised Sharon, said Israel would now have to maintain control of the Jordan Valley in any final peace agreement to ensure that Hamas does not allow other groups Israel considers terrorist organizations to arrive from Jordan or Iraq.
"Hamas cannot be seen as just another Palestinian political party with an Islamic orientation," Gold said. "It must be linked to the larger sources of terror that threaten Israel and the West."
