The Israel-Gaza border is relatively quiet. Hamas has acquired the perception and adopted the stategy of the Palestinian Authority. The perception is hardly rocket science (pardon the pun), namely, that provoking war with Israel is bad for Hamas. That would seem to be a good thing; in the short run, it is almost no rockets fired from Gaza into Sderot and other southern Israeli towns. Peace, yes, but at a price.
The new Hamas strategy is peace in the short run; actually, absence of war would be the more fitting description. Hamas is coming under bitter criticism from Gazans for its multi-year strategy of firing rockets into Israel, thus triggering Israeli retaliations. Somehow, even that cycle did not get Gazans attention until Israel invaded Gaza in December, 2008, and waged a large and harsh war against Hamas. Who suffered? The people of Gaza. Now they are fighting back. They are saying: No more rockets against Israel, since the biggest sufferers are not the Israelis, but us. Filled hospitals, destroyed houses, besieged borders, and arrogant Hamas leaders who talk big but hide among victims, who are then abandoned by these same leaders: the Gazans see through all this. Hamas is feeling the heat.
And so, its strategy is absence of war, in the short run. Make no mistake. Hamas is not renouncing its charter calling for Israels destruction; is not ceasing its import of arms via smuggling tunnels; is not seeking Palestinian unity with the Palestinian Authority; is not entertaining the idea of negotiations with Israel; is not releasing Gilad Shalit, nor abandoning the idea of kidnapping more Israelis. Hamas is Hamas.
The thing is, so is the Palestinian Authority. Yes, it is smarter than Hamas in that it is trying to create a society based on law. It is smarter than Hamas in that it manipulates the Obama administration brilliantly, stonewalling on direct peace talks with Israel while shifting the onus to Israel, precipitating a crisis in Israel-US relations. It is smarter than Hamas in that it deals indirectly with Israel in order to coax from it a relaxation of checkpoints and other controls on the Palestinian economy. And that economy is beginning to grow and blossom.
But acceptance of Israel? Affirmation of the Jews right to a Jewish state? Negotiations over borders? Renunciation of a right of return? De-glorification of violence and terror against Israel? None of that animates the strategy of the West Bank Palestinian Authority.
But, the borders are mostly quiet; both Israels western border with the Palestinian Authority and the southern border with Gaza. This would be cause for celebration, or at least cautious optimism, if it were not for the fact that the PA strategy is clear and the Hamas strategy even clearer, indeed, blatant: Save our weaponry for another day.
Even if the bitterness in Gaza becomes deep enough to lead to an insurrection against the Hamas leadership, there still remains a widespread hatred of Israel: incitement. The portrayal of Israelis as animals in Hamas media. Ditto in the West Bank.
The incitement there incitement is a code word for Palestinian maps that do not depict Israel and for Palestinian schoolrooms that glorify terrorism (martyrdom) against Israel is rampant. All is not quiet on the Western front. It is still, yes; still for now. But with a boiling cauldron of hate among many Palestinians.
We are at a loss to understand leaders of J Street who say that all Palestinians want peace when, at the same time, influential Palestinians teach their children hate in their classrooms, on their television, on their maps and in the way they name their streets after Palestinian terrorist killers.
You can judge a people by its heroes. In the current lull, do not be fooled. For too many Palestinians, their heroes have not changed.
