Hamas isn’t even trying to hide its intentions any more. Mahmoud al-Zahar, the former Prime Minister, said straight out that Hamas will take over the West Bank as soon as Israeli forces leave. Imagine then how many rockets will rain down on Israel, and where they will land. It won’t be the Negeve and Sderot. Rockets will be raining down on Jerusalem.
Hamas Islamists, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, would take over the West Bank if Israel pulled out of the territory, a senior Hamas leader said on Friday.
The comments by Mahmoud al-Zahar contrasted with remarks by Ismail Haniyeh, who serves as prime minister of a Hamas-led government dismissed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
[…] “Israel says the party in Ramallah (Fatah) serves Israel, and if Israel quits the West Bank, Hamas will take it over. And we say this is true,” Zahar said at a rally for Hamas supporters in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
[…] “We say to those in the West Bank take a lesson from what happened in Gaza,” Zahar said, an indirect reference to the fierce violence that led to Hamas’s takeover of the coastal strip.
The Annapolis conference is going to recommend that Israel exit the West Bank and give the Palestinian Authority the control it had over it in the years before the second intifada. Hamas is telegraphing its intentions should the IDF leave. And still, the world will insist that Israel abandon the West Bank.
The problem is, this time the intifada is going to be armed with rockets, tons of explosives, modern weaponry, anti-tank missiles, RPGs, night-vision scopes, and the terrorists will be trained soldiers. There will be a war, not an uprising. Many will die, on both sides.
Leaving the West Bank will be a major mistake. Here’s hoping Olmert can’t force it.
I totally agree, it is impossible for Israel exit the West Bank without knowing what will happen there afterwards.
Israel can’t let herself surround by enemies.