Hamas Vs Israel, Any End in Sight?

For decades the State of Israel and Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, more commonly known as Hamas, have fought each other for the future of the Holy Land. Their fight evolved from a group fighting from the shadows with suicide bombings, to fighting from a pseudo-state with missiles and jets. Despite decades of fighting and thousands of lives lost there seems to end in sight. Neither side can claim it is winning. From the side of Hamas they have experienced four devastating wars against Israel which have resulted in most of Gaza’s infrastructure being damaged or destroyed and the blockade of the coastal strip has not abated. From the Israeli side, their image in the world has been severely damaged which has led to economic disinvestments and boycotts and has pushed away groups which the West deems moderate away from the negotiating table. From this on-going situation come two questions, why does this conflict continue and what can be done to create a lasting and stable peace?

In response to the first question it is actually four components that keep this conflict alive; the overall Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, Hamas’s missile arsenal, and finally the fact that most of the international community shuns Hamas. The situation is furthered worsened by the fact that current Israeli government is run by hardliners, who call for discrimination against Arabs and have shown little interest in making peace with the Palestinians. The key to peace is simple, rectify these four problems and peace will ensue, a fact that the current Israeli government seems to ignore.

As for the first issue, Hamas grew from the decades of Israeli occupation and in its charter it calls for the liberation of Palestine from the “Zionist invaders” through armed struggle. Though various Palestinian groups have different methods and ideologies, most want to see the creation of an independent Palestine, with the pre-1967 borders being the minimal they will accept. In the past Hamas rejected this two-state solution, saying that the fight will never be over until all of Palestine is free. However today Hamas has shown willingness to accept a two-state solution and has even offered a long term truce with Israel based on several conditions. These conditions include: a return to the pre-1967 borders, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, an end to the Jewish settlements, and an end to the blockade. However the right-wing government of Israel has done little to make gestures of peace towards the Palestinians. Though Jewish settlements are considered illegal by the international community, Israel has continued to build and expands them. The main reason that the Palestinians walked out of negotiations with Israel was that hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to halt settlement expansion and instead gave permission for expansion to continue at an alarming rate. Even Israel’s top ally, the United States has criticized Israel over its settlement activities. In March of 2010, during a visit by American Vice President, Joe Biden, Israel unveiled plans for more settlements in East Jerusalem, which the international community deems occupied territory, causing outrage from the administration of President Obama. Many saw the timing as Israel telling America, the world, and the Palestinians, “We can do what we want, when we want.”

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories