Hamas Must Go
The terror group has proved again and again that it will
sabotage any efforts to forge a lasting peace.
NOVEMBER 14, 2023,
9:01 AM ET
One
morning in November 2012, I knocked on the door of President Barack
Obama’s suite in the Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, so early that he
was barely out of bed. I had an urgent question that could not wait for the
president to finish his morning coffee: Should we try to broker a cease-fire in
Gaza? Then, like now, the extreme Islamist terror group Hamas had sparked a
crisis by indiscriminately attacking Israeli civilians. Israel had responded
with air strikes, and a ground invasion of Gaza appeared imminent.
The president and I debated whether I should leave Asia,
fly to the Middle East, and try to negotiate a halt to the fighting before the
situation escalated further. The reason to go was clear: Stopping the violence
would save lives and prevent the conflict from spiraling into a wider regional
war.
The reasons not to go were more nuanced but also
compelling. President Obama and I were both wary of suggesting that Israel did
not have a right and a responsibility to defend itself against terrorists. If
Hamas did not face consequences for its attacks, it would be emboldened to
carry out more. We also knew Hamas had a history of breaking agreements and
could not be trusted. For that matter, neither side seemed ready to pull back
from the brink. Diplomacy is all about leverage and timing. If I tried and failed
to negotiate a cease-fire, it would reduce America’s credibility in the region
and lower the likelihood that we could reengage successfully later.
In the end, we decided the risks were worth it. I headed to
the region and began intense shuttle diplomacy among Israel, Egypt, and the
Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Late into the night in Cairo, I went
line by line through a proposal I’d worked out with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The Egyptians were on the phone with Hamas
leaders in Gaza. Finally, I was able to announce that all parties had agreed to
a truce.
On the long plane ride home, I asked my aide Jake Sullivan,
who is now President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, if Hamas was
abiding by the agreement we’d just struck. So far, he told me, the answer was
yes. I was relieved that we’d prevented further bloodshed, but I worried that
all we’d really managed to do was put a lid on a simmering cauldron that would
likely boil over again in the future.
Unfortunately, that fear proved correct. In 2014, Hamas
violated the cease-fire and started another war by abducting Israeli hostages
and launching rocket attacks against civilians. Israel responded forcefully,
but Hamas remained in control of Gaza. The terrorists re-armed, and the pattern
repeated itself in 2021, with more civilians killed. This all culminated in the
horrific massacre of Israeli civilians last month, the worst mass murder of
Jews since the Holocaust.
This history suggests three insights for the current crisis
and the future of this complex and volatile region. First, October 7 made clear
that this bloody cycle must end and that Hamas cannot be allowed to once again
retrench, re-arm, and launch new attacks—while continuing to use people in Gaza
as expendable human shields. Second, a full cease-fire that leaves Hamas in
power would be a mistake. For now, pursuing more limited humanitarian pauses
that allow aid to get in and civilians and hostages to get out is a wiser
course. Third, Israel’s long policy of containment has failed—it needs a new
strategy and new leadership.
For me, Israel and Gaza are not just names on a map. I have
grieved with Israeli families whose loved ones were abducted or killed in
terrorist attacks. I have held the hands of the wounded in their hospital beds.
In Jerusalem, I visited a bombed-out pizzeria and will never forget it.
I have also been to Gaza. I have talked with Palestinians
who have suffered greatly from the conflicts of the past decades and dream of
peace and a state of their own. Before Hamas seized power, I met
women using microloans from the United States to start new businesses and
become breadwinners for their families, including a dressmaker who—because she
was finally able to buy a sewing machine—could send her two daughters to
school. My decades of experience in the region taught me that Palestinian and
Israeli parents may say different prayers at worship but they share the same
hopes for their kids—just like Americans, just like parents everywhere.
That is why I am convinced Hamas must go. On October 7,
these terrorists killed babies, raped women, and kidnapped innocent civilians.
They continue to hold more than 200 hostages. They have proved again and again
that they will not abide by cease-fires, will sabotage any efforts to forge a
lasting peace, and will never stop attacking Israel.
Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people. Hamas
deliberately places military installations in and below hospitals and refugee
camps because it is trying to maximize, not minimize, the impact on Palestinian
civilians for its own propaganda purposes. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is
heartbreaking—and every death means more blood on Hamas’s hands.
So the Biden administration is correct not to seek a full
cease-fire at this moment, which would give Hamas a chance to re-arm and
perpetuate the cycle of violence. Hamas would claim that it had won and it
would remain a key part of Iran’s so-called axis of resistance.
Cease-fires freeze conflicts rather than resolve them. In
1999, the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević called for a cease-fire in
Kosovo, where NATO air strikes were trying to stop his brutal campaign of
ethnic cleansing. It was a cynical attempt to preserve Serbia’s control of
Kosovo, and the Clinton administration continued bombing until Milošević’s
forces withdrew. Today, global allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin call
for a cease-fire in Ukraine because they know freezing the conflict will leave
Russia in control of large swaths of Ukrainian territory that it seized
illegally. Putin could reinforce his troops and then resume the conflict at a
time of his choosing.
In 2012, freezing the conflict in Gaza was an outcome we
and the Israelis were willing to accept. But Israel’s policy since 2009 of
containing rather than destroying Hamas has failed. A cease-fire now that
restored the pre–October 7 status quo ante would leave the people of Gaza
living in a besieged enclave under the domination of terrorists and leave
Israelis vulnerable to continued attacks. It would also consign hundreds of
hostages to continued captivity.
Cease-fires can make it possible to pursue negotiations
aimed at achieving a lasting peace, but only when the timing and balance of
forces are right. Bosnia in the 1990s saw 34 failed cease-fires before the
Clinton administration’s military intervention prompted all sides to stop
fighting and finally negotiate a peace agreement. It is possible that if Israel
dismantles Hamas’s infrastructure and military capacity and demonstrates that
terrorism is a dead end, a new peace process could begin in the Middle East.
But a cease-fire that leaves Hamas in power and eager to strike Israel will
make this harder, if not impossible. For decades, Hamas has undermined every
serious attempt at peace by launching new attacks, including the October 7
massacre that seems to have been designed, at least in part, to disrupt
progress toward normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. (Those
negotiations also aimed to bring important benefits for Palestinians.)
By contrast, the humanitarian pauses advocated by the Biden
administration and tentatively accepted by the Israelis can save lives without
rewarding Hamas. There is precedent: During previous wars in Gaza, Israel and
Hamas agreed to a number of pauses so that relief could get into the area.
Recent conflicts in Yemen and Sudan have also undergone brief humanitarian
pauses. Whether for hours or days, breaks in the fighting can provide safety to
aid workers and refugees. They could also help facilitate hostage negotiations,
which is an urgent priority right now.
Rejecting a premature cease-fire does not mean defending
all of Israel’s tactics, nor does it lessen Israel’s responsibility to comply
with the laws of war. Minimizing civilian casualties is legally and morally
necessary. It is also a strategic imperative. Israel’s long-term security
depends on its achieving peaceful coexistence with neighbors who are prepared
to accept its existence and its need for security. The disaster of October 7
has discredited the theory that Israel can contain Hamas, ignore the legitimate
aspirations of the Palestinian people, and freeze Israeli control over
Palestinians forever.
Going forward, Israel needs a new strategy and new
leadership. Instead of the current ultra-right-wing government, it will need a
government of national unity that’s rooted in the center of Israeli politics
and can make the hard choices ahead. At home, it will have to reaffirm Israeli
democracy after a tumultuous period. In Gaza, it should resist the urge to
reoccupy the territory after the war, accept an internationally mandated
interim administration for governing the Strip, and support regional efforts to
reform and revive the Palestinian Authority so it has the credibility and the
means to reassume control of Gaza. In the West Bank, it must clamp down on the
violence perpetrated by extremist Israeli settlers and stop building new
settlements that make it harder to imagine a future Palestinian state.
Ultimately, the only way to ensure Israel’s future as a secure, democratic,
Jewish state is by achieving two states for two peoples. And in the region,
Israel should resume serious negotiations with Saudi Arabia and others to
normalize relations and build a broad coalition to counter Iran.
For now, Israel should focus on freeing the hostages,
increasing humanitarian aid, protecting civilians, and ensuring that Hamas
terrorists can no longer murder families, abduct children, exploit civilians as
human shields, or start new wars. But when the guns fall silent, the hard work
of peace building must begin. There is no other choice.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a former U.S. senator and
secretary of state, and the first woman to win a major party’s nomination for
president of the United States. She is the author of What Happened.
