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| Shin Bet: Hamas a 'strategic threat' |
| 2006-02-24 |
| Appearing before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in a briefing yesterday, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin devoted most of his security review to Hamas' rise to power in the Palestinian Authority. "In the long run, the Hamas organization poses a strategic threat to Israel," he warned. "We must not fall into the 'honey trap' it is setting for us and agree to its proposals for a 10-year hudna and de facto recognition of Israel. I'm not sure we haven't fallen into the trap already." Diskin explained that Hamas is trying to get Israel and the world to consent to its ostensibly recognizing Israel in practice, then hold its fire for 10 years while using the time to build its military might against Israel. "We need to be very careful of the vague statements Hamas is bandying about and its sweet words. They must recognize Israel de jure, and not de facto," he said. Asked by MK Danny Yatom (Labor) what he means by defining Hamas as a strategic threat, Diskin said: "If a radical Sunni Hamas state arises across our border, all the extremist radical elements will come there from throughout the world and from countries like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and will deploy along the state's borders. From my standpoint, a state like that, with military capability and the ability to carry out terrorist attacks, is a strategic threat to Israel." Diskin warned that such a state could have a radiating effect on Israeli Arabs, which could be a serious problem. However, Diskin thinks Hamas will make an effort to prevent terrorist attacks in the near future to prove to the world that it has firm control on the ground. He noted that Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees remain active. On Saturday, the Shin Bet assassinated a senior Islamic Jihad operative in Nablus, but despite such successes the group is still capable of terrorist attacks. Diskin stressed that the government's decision to stop transferring tax revenue to the PA might make it more difficult for Hamas to solidify its rule. Hamas needs $1.5 billion a year and is unlikely to raise that much from donations, he said. Diskin got into a verbal spat with MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), who criticized his appearance before students at the pre-military academy in the settlement of Eli, during which he termed the disengagement plan "uprooting." "When you meet with that public and use the term 'uprooting,' you're fawning on those who used that expression to oppose the disengagement," Cohen charged. Diskin replied that he was merely using the term in its technical Hebrew sense of removing something from its place, and that he had also employed the term during government discussions. |
| Posted by:Steve White |