Hamas: The Champions of Making It Worse
"All I could think about was all that Yitzhak Rabin had sacrificed so that all of this might not happen. Instead, 32 more years of conflict since those horrible decisions by Arafat and Hamas."
By Michael Golden
On September 14, 1993, in a historic moment at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed to a preliminary framework for what they and President Clinton hoped would become a more permanent peace accord at a date uncertain. After the President spoke, Rabin stepped up to the mic and in a solemn voice delivered these words:
“This signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles here today, it’s not so easy. We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears. Enough.”
Arafat, who was smiling ear to ear in full military garb at the White House, reached across to shake Rabin’s hand. The Prime Minister took it, with visible reluctance that he later confirmed to Tom Brokaw.
Rabin had served in the Israeli military for 26 years (starting with the Haganah in 1941), defending his country in conflict after conflict. He rose to the highest rank in the IDF, and then spent another 27 years serving in Israeli government positions. No one knew what was at stake more than he, and virtually no one had less reason to trust Yasser Arafat.
Fifty-two days later, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a 23-year-old extremist at a mass rally in support of the prospective Oslo Accords framework. President Clinton made remarks almost immediately afterwards at the White House. Clinton, who has said that he loved Rabin as much as he’s loved any man in his life, made the following clear to the world:
“For half a century, Yitzhak Rabin risked his life to defend his country. Today, he gave his life to bring it a lasting peace. His last act, his last words, were in defense of that peace he did so much to create. I want the world to remember what the Prime Minister said here at the White House one month ago, and I quote: ‘We should not let the land flowing with milk and honey become a land flowing with blood and tears. Don’t let it happen.’”
Five years later, near the end of his presidency, Clinton, Arafat and Rabin’s successor, P.M. Ehud Barak, met at Camp David with the stated intention of signing the Oslo Accords. At the last minute, without any clear reasoning, Arafat refused to sign it. The President, shocked and furious, banged his fist on the table and said: “You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe.”
(historian Benny Morris details the deal, the negotiations, and the unraveling in this article)
Days later, the Palestinians launched the Second Intifada against Israel, the beginning of years more attacks and violence. For a while, there were questions about whether this was a spontaneous assault or something ordered by the PLO. One of the cofounders of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, cleared that up a few years later:
“President Arafat instructed Hamas to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish State after he felt that his negotiations with the Israeli government had failed.”
I have stood on that ground in Tel Aviv where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. In 1995, it was called Kings of Israel Square. It is now known as Rabin Square, and people pay tribute there every day to the slain Israeli hero.
Yesterday, after Hamas put on its disgusting public display of delivering murdered bodies in coffins back to Israel, I sent a message to my Israeli coauthor in Tel Aviv:
“I am so angry about that fucking display today that I can barely think straight.”
A more articulate expression of that reaction, which Jews far and wide were feeling, was articulated by Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress:
“No deal can obscure this reality. Hamas is not a political movement. It is not a resistance group. It is a death cult, driven by a singular mission: the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of Jews. Every time Hamas shows its cloaked faces, it becomes clearer that there can be no future for Israelis, Palestinians or anyone in the Middle East as long as Hamas persists.”
Though it was hard for me to think or speak anything coherently yesterday, I did think about Yitzhak Rabin. I thought about what he sacrificed so that all of this might not happen; instead, 32 more years of conflict and death since those horrible decisions by Arafat and Hamas.
I have written several times in this space that because Hamas has no intention of letting Jews live, much less negotiating to live side-by-side, they have no constructive end game. There’s nowhere to go. It takes two. Rabin, Barak, and other Israeli P.M.’s have been willing to try. Zero ever comes from the other side.
But what Hamas did yesterday was beyond heinously extreme and inhuman — it was also stupid. It was like setting aside the “stick in the eye,” and instead driving a sword through it.
There is a doctrine called the “Samson Principle” in Israel. It is a deterrence strategy based on the fact that Israel now possesses nuclear weapons. The Jewish State wants no war with anyone, but that has not been the history of the Jewish People. We have never been wanted in any country, and for most of history, we’ve been forced to engage in hand-to-hand hand combat to survive.
Not anymore. The Israel Defense Forces, even without nuclear weapons, is formidable. And Israel will use this self-created power when necessary; she has no choice.
It is an understatement to say that Hamas caught the IDF off guard on October 7, and it will be written about for the remainder of history. But for every action, there is a reaction, and that’s what we’ve watched for over 500 days now.
If Hamas truly wants to try to rebuild Gaza and not get further crushed by the IDF, it has a strangely moronic way of going about it.
MICHAEL GOLDEN is the Editor-In-Chief of JEWDICIOUS and founder of The Golden Mean.
From navigating the nuances of family and relationships to unpacking history and politics to finding the human angle on sports and entertainment — plus our unsparing take on what’s happening in the Jewish world — the canvas at JEWDICIOUS is limitless!
MUSLIMS TOLD THE WORLD OVER AND OVER, THAT NO AGREEMENTS MADE WITH WESTERNERS / INFEDELWILL THEY UPHOLD. ONLY MUCHAMMEDS WORDS.
WHY ANYONE MAKES DEALS WITH THEM IS INSANE. WE LEARN OVER AND OVER THAT THEIR INTENTIONS DONT CHAMGE, BUT NEITHER DOES OUR BRAIN GRASP THE TRUTH. THEY EVEN KILL EACH OTHER. WHY DONT WE WAKE UP? EVERY COUNTRY THEY ENTETED IS WORSE FOR IT. THANK YOU BUSH SR. FOR HELPING TO RADICALIZE THEM MORE AND OPENING FOORS FOR THEM.
It's sad, but the Palestinians are getting what they ask for. They choose to make total war on an opponent who wants peaceful co-existence...with whom they once had prosperous and peaceful co-existence. If you make total war on someone, you have no right to complain if they make total war on you. Perhaps the time has come to force the residents out of Gaza...maybe that will convince the residents on the West Bank to make peace.