WASHINGTON TIMES
Why Hamas fights Israel
by Clifford May
October 26, 2021

In 2005, Israelis conducted a bold experiment. Prevailing wisdom held that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was due to Israel’s “occupation” of two “Palestinian territories.” If that was true, shouldn’t giving Palestinians one of those territories, Gaza, mitigate the conflict? Negotiations over the other “occupied territory,” the West Bank, could follow, leading to the resolution of the conflict. Fast forward to last May when Hamas, which rules Gaza, initiated a war with Israel – for the fourth time. Obviously, Israel’s experiment failed. Equally obvious: Israelis cannot withdraw from the West Bank until they have security guarantees from the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs that territory. And if that means the Jews of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem will be denied Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey, so be it. READ MORE