A constant refrain heard during the course of the IDF's "Operation Cast Lead" campaign in Gaza was that by attempting to crush Hamas, Israel was only acting to radicalize the Palestinians further - as if it really were possible to be even more politically extreme than one must be to vote Hamas into power. What struck me as even stranger than these prophecies of Palestinian "radicalization", however, was that none of those making them ever stopped to consider that a similar dynamic could possibly be at work on the Israeli side as well, i.e. that Hamas' unrelenting campaign of terror could push Israeli voters well to the right of the likes of Tzipi Livni's Kadima and Ehud Barak's Labor, both of which parties are clearly much more amenable to the creation of a viable Palestinian state and full equality for Israel's Arabs than any of the more right-wing alternatives: in other words, while Palestinian "radicalization" would only mean even shriller impotent cries of "Death to Israel" and the like - but without the smuggled weapons to realize them - the Palestinians really did stand to lose a great deal by goading their declared enemies. You'd think that those who insist most stridently on the powerlessness of the Palestinians would be most aware of this reality, and yet the very same people were the ones ranting as if it was Hamas most in need of placating ...
At any rate, what pushed me to write this piece is that it would seem events are validating my counter-argument: Israeli public opinion is indeed being radicalized by Hamas' unwillingness to consider peace, so much so that the extreme right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party stands to eclipse the Labor Party which once had as strong a claim to the title "Israel's natural party of government" as the Social Democratic Party did in Sweden. As the polls currently stand, a right-wing coalition between Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas or the National Union seems likely to form Israel's next government, with Benjamin Netanyahu sitting in the Prime Minister's office. If this seems like a positive development for Hamas' many left-wing apologists, they are welcome to commence celebrations, but from where I stand the prospect of any sort of Palestinian state has just receded considerably into the distance. Thus are the fruits of Hamas' campaign of terror.
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