Only the Arab world can defeat Hamas

It turns out that the people warning us that Gaza was a trap were right all along: like a non-Newtonian fluid, Hamas only gets stronger the more physical pressure applied. Those who believed it could be defeated militarily through direct confrontation should understand that attacking Hamas head-on was what they wanted. When former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said “We love death more than you love life,” he revealed their belief and strategic understanding that death (especially of Palestinians) is not a cost but rather an asset to their movement.

That is why two years of applying the world’s most powerful fighting machine to break Hamas have resulted in their strategic victory: Israel is more internationally isolated than ever, more economically and socially challenged than ever. Hamas rules the Strip. Its allies (Qatar and Turkey) are poised to determine the future of Gaza and keep it as a forward base for their campaign to dominate the Middle East. Add to that the martyrdom of their leaders, and in the eyes of a Jihadist, it adds up to Total Victory: Hamas.

Were I advising Hamas, I’d suggest to keep pushing: Israel is off-balance, without the leadership to reset its strategic position. The weeks since Trump’s peace show the anti-Zionist push hasn’t lessened. Activists in Western capitals have redefined “ceasefire” to mean Israel ceases to exist. Much of the Left has adopted that language. Much of the Right agrees. Prominent Jews have joined them in calling for increased international pressure. Openly antizionist political figures are expected to win elections, increasing the movement’s momentum in Western Politics. Imperialism is on the march.

Israel, on its own, will be unable to counter this offensive. The current government built and maintained by Benjamin Netanyahu has systematically degraded Israel’s social and political capital, tarnished its brand as a liberal democracy, distanced itself from moderate forces pushing back against radical efforts to overturn Open Societies, shown callousness and disregard for international expectations, and lost the support of the Western street. Even if we expel this government after the next elections (and we must), it will take years of effort by new Israeli leadership and global Jewish support to rebuild credibility.

Fortunately, we’re not alone in the fight. Hamas and its Islamic imperialist allies represent a minority in the region. They threaten the modern national powers and kingdoms: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Emirates, all of whom have a lot to lose if the Islamic imperialist forces gain. The ruling parties (the royal families of Arabia, Jordan, and the Emirates, and the juntas of Egypt and Lebanon) are more afraid of being overthrown by Islamists than by war with Israel. Their heads will literally be on the chopping block if the Islamists grow in power. Which is why, ironically, Hamas’s jihadist victory presents an opportunity for Israel to build an alliance with the modern Middle Eastern states to defeat Islamic imperialism.

While Israel has cooperated with these modern powers over the decades, it has only done so covertly. This covert cooperation has denied Israel the legitimacy it requires to gain the recognition it deserves as a peer power in the region, a permanent resident in the Middle East, a citizen of the Levant. It has also denied the modern Arab powers the opportunity to engage in a campaign against Islamic imperialism: as long as Israel is seen as illegitimate, the Islamists’ efforts to eradicate it receive the regimes’ implicit support, and efforts to end Islamism are branded as traitorous.

Only the modern Arab states can reform the Palestinian curriculum and demand an end to imperialist propaganda. Only the modern Arab states can call for the redefinition of Palestinian refugees, the normalization of their status in line with every other peoples displaced by war. Only the modern Arab states can call for the end of UNRWA so as to end the internationalization of the Palestinian problem. Only the modern Arab states can present a united front against Islamic imperialism in the Middle East, in Europe, across Africa and the East.

We can’t fight this battle for them, but we can help. For this alliance to emerge into the open, Israel and the global Jewish community need to do three things:

1. Present to the Palestinians the benefits of defeating Hamas and overturning a century of anti-Zionist obsession. This requires a vision for a future enticing for Palestinians and their advocates, one where an individual Palestinian feels safe and respected living alongside a Jewish State, either equal under Israeli Laws or as one among equals within their own entity. Yes, it is true that even Palestinians under Israeli military rule in Judea and Samaria have more rights and legal protections than Arab citizens living in the 22 dictatorships of the region. Unfortunately, the subjective matters more than the objective: until Palestinians feel equal to their peers (even if that means living equally under a tyrant) they will feel they are denied the dignity they deserve.

1. Work with global powers to cut off financial aid to Hamas and its allies. Instead of fighting the symptoms of antizionism and antisemitism, Israel and the organized Jewish community should target the money driving their growth: a global network of financial intermediaries and trusts propagating hatred and convincing generally well-meaning youth to hate Israel. Mapping and outing should be the strategic imperative, followed by regulatory pushes to target and isolate funding sources and pressure global corporations to stop taking money from Islamists.
2. End the world’s dependence on fossil fuels to disrupt the business model fueling Islamic imperialism. As long as Qatar (and Iran) have access to billions of dollars in annual revenues for doing no more than sitting on a plot of land, money will flow towards their imperialist pursuits. That money funds Al-Jazeera to inspire murderers and recruit supporters in the West, buys explosives and drones, and ensures Western politicians favor Qatar and its allies. Israel has the technology, it has the ingenuity, and it has the existential justification for making the development of alternatives to fossil fuels its national priority. It’s time for Israel to devote itself to a Grand Strategy to End Fossil Fuels, for its sake and the world’s.

By taking these three steps – all of which can be started with or without the current government by Israel civil society leaders and global Jewish organizations – we can begin to mount an offensive against Islamic imperialism without falling into their death trap. By learning from our failure to defeat Hamas over the past two years, and building and pursuing a strategy that adapts to their victory while working to undercut it, we may weaken them before the next war. Perhaps we may avoid it altogether.