What are we to make of Peres and Beilin’s puzzling statements on Gaza? Peres publicly regretted the withdrawal, while Beilin claimed he had always opposed it.
Hamas’ victory in Gaza and likely takeover of the West Bank leave the Israeli establishment without peace-process puppets. Ever since Peres brought Arafat, a defeated nobody, from Tunis as a sparring partner for peace negotiations, he has backed the PLO—an organization whose very name suggests liberating all of Palestine from the Jews. Now, Peres needs Israeli bayonets to reestablish Fatah as the dominant power in Gaza.
Both Netanyahu and Lieberman have promised to do away with Hamas. That they cannot do, but Peres pushes them to make good on their promises and invade Gaza. The eventual Israeli defeat in the politically correct war against guerrillas would be Netanyahu’s, while the chance to return Fatah to Gaza belongs to Peres.
