Peace: Hamas’s Worst Nightmare

I have recently been reading allegations that on October 7th, Hamas purposefully targeted the kibutzim as part of an effort to target the Israeli left and Israel’s pro-peace camp. These allegations are accompanied by shock and outrage.

However, these allegations do not surprise me. Israel’s pro-peace camp represents an existential threat to Hamas.

The thing Hamas fears most is a peaceful Israel living side by side next to a successful Palestinian state.

Hamas relies on Palestinians feeling hatred towards Israel and desperation about their personal lives and political futures in order to recruit people. That is why its rule in Gaza had to oppress their own people; for Hamas, oppression of Palestinians is their main way of ensuring the continuity of their own organization.

In a situation where Palestinians felt hopeful about their personal lives and their national political aspirations towards independence, Hamas would find its forces severely depleted.

Furthermore, Hamas’s raison d’etre is hatred of Israel. So of course, an Israel that feels safe and secure is the opposite of what it wants.

Add into this that a process towards a two state solution would increase Israel’s diplomatic standing in the Western world, with the ancillary political, social, and economic benefits that come with that increase in standing, and a two state solution is Hamas’s worst nightmare.

So why do steps towards a two state solution, and negotiations with the PA -Hamas’s main political rival, which works with Israeli security forces -get framed in the Israeli political debate as giving into Hamas?

In fact, the opposite is true!

Steps towards a two state solution and empowering the PA are giving Hamas the opposite of what it wants.

One could argue the best way to achieve victory over Hamas after October 7th is to take steps to make their nightmare come true. How ironic would it be if instead of preventing peace, October 7th acted as its catalyst.

Instead, we have in some senses given Hamas exactly what it wants: An Israel with a peace camp bruised and battered, bereft of political power, an Israel stuck in a quagmire of endless war with no specific strategic goals, paying the economic, social, diplomatic and military prices that such a war entails, both Palestinians and Israelis radicalized, new Hamas recruits in Gaza drawn from those who have lost homes and families in the war.

The time has come to realize that if war is what Hamas wants, giving it war can in some senses never be a complete victory.

Let’s change tactics.

If peace is what it fears, let’s give them a dose of peace and see what happens. Let’s make their fears come true.