With Hamas truce bid, Netanyahu and Bennett head to disastrous new 2-state idea

Quietly, right under Israel’s nose, the Netanyahu-Bennett government (the fifth Netanyahu government) is taking steps toward a historic process that is meant to create a de-facto two-state reality: one de-facto state in the Gaza Strip under the control of Hamas, and the second in the sprawling territory between the river and the sea under Israeli control, including the West Bank.

But the historic agreement (even if it is only a partial one) with Hamas, which the Netanyahu government is making big strides toward — alongside economic sanctions it is imposing on the Palestinian Authority, and the absence of a diplomatic process with the PA — may together carry a heavy price, if not soon, then in years to come.

This two-pronged action suggests the end goal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new defense minister, Naftali Bennett: weakening the PA until it falls apart, while bolstering the settlements and the Jewish hold over the West Bank, and at the same time strengthening and stabilizing Gaza’s Hamas — the terror group that has vowed to destroy the State of Israel.

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In the simplest terms, Israel is punishing those who have vowed to work toward a peace agreement, and doing all it can to assist those who fire rockets, carry out terror attacks and call again and again for jihad against Israel.

Hamas is already feeling the benefits, starting with Qatari funding, and is on the way to getting more goods, even some that were forbidden from entering the Strip until a few days ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett tour the northern border on November 24, 2019 (Haim Tzach/GPO)

By contrast, in recent days Israel decided to cut the PA’s funding because of the salaries it pays to the families of dead terrorists and other security offenders. This move is justified, but raises a simple question: Why, by the same token, doesn’t Israel deduct from the Qatari funding distributed in Gaza the money that Hamas invests in building terror tunnels?

The answer is, of course, that Israel is fearful of Hamas’s response. And for the time being, who knows how far the government headed by Netanyahu (and joined recently by “Mr. Security” Bennett) will go to prove that “Jews only understand force.”

This is the most serious problem created by the current process. Maybe Israel will achieve improved security around the Strip for a few weeks, even a few months. But the takeaway for every young Palestinian man and the wider public is that Hamas’s way — rocket fire, violent protests, terror attacks etc. — works better than the route taken by the PA, which still maintains its security coordination with Israel and assists in preventing terror attacks.

Netanyahu is proving that the notion of “if they give, they will receive” has been drained of meaning. Today, the opposite is true. If you shoot, blow things up, and kill, then you will receive benefits. If you cooperate with Israel and help us — you will be punished.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah on October 6, 2019. (Abbas Momani/AFP)

And all this before discussions on the leaky security agreement have even gotten started.

There are still too many question marks and enormous problems surrounding the potential deal: the reported readiness to allow the entry into Israel of thousands more workers from Gaza, some of whom will help Hamas by gathering intelligence on Israel and on sensitive targets, or will help move money; concern over Hamas’s ability to continue digging tunnels and get armed without any interruptions, as long as it’s not firing rockets; the lack of an explicit commitment from Hamas to prevent the shooting from the Strip by rogue actors, both Islamic Jihad and others; the lack of a Hamas ban on carrying out terror attacks in the West Bank; and of course, the Israeli government’s disregard of the issue of the bodies of IDF soldiers held by Hamas, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.

There is a certain logic to a security arrangement. There isn’t really a solution to Gaza right now, and the northern front is much more of a concern for Israel. That’s a reason the army and the IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi support a potential agreement with Hamas.

Additionally, the Netanyahu-Bennett-Kohavi camp has been joined by National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, who in his previous role as the head of the southern front for the Shin Bet was against allowing in workers or giving significant relief to the Gaza population, and now, in his current role, has become one of the enthusiastic supporters of the process.

In any event, the price of such an arrangement, which weakens the PA on one hand and strengthens Hamas on the other, is likely to be deadly, even if its in the long-term.

There are also considerations being taken into account besides security. Netanyahu and Bennett are hungry for some kind of achievement related to Gaza due to the harsh criticism they’ve faced on the issue.

This is an election period and you can be sure that the “Magician of Balfour” and his crew will present this shameful capitulation to Hamas as a victory to the glory of Netanyahu.

The bottom line is that Netanyahu is returning to the pattern of the “Hebron agreement,” which came the moment after he became prime minister for the first time: a step toward violence that will eventually lead to a lot of concessions on his side and that will likely cost us all dearly.