theguardian.com
Israel and its allies must face facts: peace talks are the only way forward, and they will have to include Hamas
Peter Hain
Lord Hain is a former UK Middle East minister and Northern Ireland secretary of state

After the Hamas terror of 7 October and Benjamin Netanyahu’s horrific retaliation in Gaza, some long overdue truths need stating. First, Israel is not going to “destroy Hamas”, as its leaders promise - not even by destroying Gaza.

Although Israel is damaging Hamas militarily, maybe significantly, with many of its tunnels eliminated and its fighters fleeing, Hamas is a movement and an ideology that, in many respects, Netanyahu’s extremism helped to promote.

Rightwing Israeli governments have thwarted serious negotiations with Palestine’s more “moderate” party, the late Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, since the Camp David summit in 2000 - more than 20 years ago. They have also consistently oppressed Gaza residents, imposing a near-constant state of siege. Is it really surprising that many Palestinians turned in desperation to an extremist alternative in Hamas?

The lesson of all modern conflicts must be that failure by the powerful to end injustice and negotiate a solution breeds extremism. As Britain’s troubled history in Northern Ireland vividly demonstrates, when politics doesn’t work, violence fills the vacuum.

British governments refused for decades to officially negotiate with the IRA because of its terrorist outrages. But when they finally did so, it resulted in the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Although an immensely painful pill for unionists to swallow, it was supported by the US president, the UK prime minister and an EU president, all of whose successors have apparently forgotten that fundamental lesson.