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The Iranian Gambit in Gaza

[Commentary] Jonathan Schanzer - So long as Hamas rules Gaza and can use it as a base for anti-Israel violence, it will have an effective veto over any peace initiative. Hamas' decision to risk a new confrontation with Israel cannot be understood without taking the full measure of Iran's role in nurturing, training, sustaining, financing, and perhaps directing the group's actions. Until there is some resolution of the conflict within the Palestinian body politic, there will be nothing to discuss, primarily because there is and will be no legitimate interlocutor on the Palestinian side. And if Hamas, with the backing of Iran, finally emerges victorious in its twenty-year effort to be the defining force of Palestinian nationalism, it will have no interest in serving as that interlocutor, no matter what Obama and the West might do or say or promise. A Hamas-led Palestinian Authority will openly act as the vanguard for Iran's determination to see Israel "wiped off the face of the earth." The writer, a former intelligence analyst at the U.S. Treasury, is deputy director of the Jewish Policy Center.
2009-02-26 06:00:00
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