Israel Matzav

Israel’s “no war, no peace” policy and the Muqawama Doctrine

Ehud Yaari, former Arab affairs correspondent for Israel Television, and one of the more intelligent commentators on the Israeli scene, spoke last night in Toronto to more than 1000 people about the two topics in the title line. Ted of Israpundit was there, and blogged the occasion:

He advised that Israel wants to disengage from the Arabs even if there is no recognition or agreement on borders. This is called a “no war, no peace” policy.

He wrote about this in February of this year in Inside the Hamas Strategy when Hamas was first elected.

This is the concrete deal that Hamas is offering Israel: an open-ended armistice in exchange for a well-armed and independent Palestinian state; a prolonged cessation of hostilities, but no peace treaty and no resolution of the conflict’s underlying issues. According to conversations with its leaders and its public statements, Hamas will recognize Israel as an “occupier state” while still rejecting its legitimacy. As a sign of their seriousness, the heads of Hamas have already quietly given assurances that they will unconditionally extend the tahdiah, the lull in attacks on Israel, that they painstakingly maintained in the year leading up to their stunning victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections on January 25. They will keep their terrorist weaponry on safety, without giving it up.

Unfortunately, it is likely that the Europeans will soon advise Israel to accept such a deal. The Egyptians are already arguing in private that an armistice without a peace treaty is preferable to another intifada. And, rest assured, down the road there will be Israelis who will urge taking the deal that is possible and giving up on the one that is necessary–that is, a final-status agreement incorporating Palestinian recognition of Israel. This is how Hamas hopes to achieve legitimacy and to consolidate its gains.

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He also described an other Arab policy often referred to as “resistance”.

The Muqawama Doctrine

Muqawama calls for constant combat against one’s adversary. The doctrine holds that, to defeat one’s adversaries, more can be achieved by armed resistance than by political agreement.

[..] the muqawama doctrine’s call for resistance. Others, such as Hamas bureau chief Khaled Mashal and Gen. Michel Suleiman, commander in chief of the Lebanese army, have been more explicit in their calls for muqawama against Israel and others.

The muqawama doctrine does not call for the strengthening of armies in order to compete against adversaries’ armed forces. Instead, it calls for battles to be waged against civilian populations.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:33 AM