Israeli CIA: No Chance For Peace With Hamas

Haaretz and Jerusalem Post:

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said Tuesday that there was no chance of engaging in a peace process while Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip.

Diskin made the comments during a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in which he also commended Egypt’s efforts to curb smuggling to the coastal territory.

“The Egyptians are making significant efforts in order to thwart smuggling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip, and recently it is even possible to discern an improvement in their achievements,” Diskin said.

One of Israel’s stated goals in its recent three-week offensive against Hamas was to prevent the flow of weapons from the Sinai peninsula into Gaza.

Diskin added that Hamas has maintained quiet in Gaza in order to rebuild its strength.

“Hamas is interested right now in quiet, in order to gain time in which to renew its rearming, and in a bid to strengthen its hold on the territory,” he told the lawmakers.

“Hamas wants to maintain the calm in order to win the time it needs to reinforce and improve its standing in the field,” he said, estimating that some 300 smuggling tunnels were currently active on the Egypt-Gaza border.

A joint [Fatah-Hamas] government can only be formed through firm international pressure,” the Shin Bet head said. “Hamas will never voluntarily give up its rule in the Strip, and the Palestinian Authority will never cede its control over the West Bank.”

“If ballots were cast in the West Bank today, there is a good chance Hamas would win,” he added.