Israel Proposes Sanctions Against Hamas Government.

By Robert Berger (VOA-Jerusalem) & IsraelNationalNews.com

Israel is putting the economic squeeze on the Palestinians, after the election of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas last month. Hamas is also under growing pressure from Palestinian moderates to renounce violence.

Israel's defense ministry has recommended barring Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip from entering Israel and restricting the movement of goods. The measures, which are expected to be imposed next week, would be a severe blow to the Palestinian economy, already battered by five years of conflict.

Israel also plans to cut off $50 million in monthly tax payments to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the move is part of economic pressure against a Hamas-led Palestinian parliament that will be sworn in on Saturday. "No one can ask Israel to transfer funds to terrorist organizations like Hamas and have those funds come back to us in the form of suicide bombings," he said.

Hamas described the Israeli measures as collective punishment. But Hamas is also feeling the squeeze from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of the defeated and more moderate Fatah party. Concerned about the loss of economic support, Mr. Abbas plans to order Hamas to renounce violence and accept his goal of pursuing a peace agreement with Israel if it wants to take over the government.

Palestinian analyst Wadia Abu Nasser said it is part of an emerging power struggle within the Palestinian Authority. "I believe that we will witness in the coming months almost daily struggle between the presidency of the PA, meaning President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Cabinet and parliament led by Hamas."

Abbas believes the only way to achieve Palestinian statehood is through internationally recognized peace talks with Israel. Hamas believes a state will come about only when Israel is destroyed through jihad, or holy war. And it's going to take some time for the two rival factions to bridge the gaps.

A leading political scientist has said that Israel is continuing past mistakes, paving the way for future hatred and murder by talking with terrorists - even if only on a local level.

Prof. Ephraim Inbar, the head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, spoke on Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine on the topic the Israeli government's approach to Hamas:

"The world is looking at us, and if it sees us beginning to find ways to approve of Hamas, even partially, it will be happy to join in the fun. We have to ensure that the wall of opposition to Hamas stays firm; so far, the countries who are willing to talk with Hamas, such as Russia and Venezuela - and France is also showing some signs of coming towards Hamas - are doing this only in order to flex their muscles against the United States..."

Turkey, as well, hosted Hamas leaders Thursday morning. Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny said she knew of the meeting in advance, and informed her Turkish counterpart that Israel insists that no recognition be shown to Hamas until it abandons its goal of destroying Israel. Turkish officials said they agreed to meet with Hamas political leader Khaled Masha'al and other Hamas representatives in order to "inform [them] of what the international community expects from them."

In addition, Jordan announced that it would invite Hamas leaders for a visit next week - the first time they will be allowed into the kingdom since they were banished in 1999.

Inbar said that Israel is once again repeating a grave mistake that led in the past to catastrophic results: "It should be known that Israel is already talking with Hamas, on the municipal level, with various mayors from the Hamas organization. The mayors are working for their municipal needs, but in the final analysis, they are building in their cities a strong educational infrastructure for the continued fight against Israel. They are building Muslim schools, which teach that shahidim [martyrs] who kill Jews are to be admired and emulated. Mayors, too, play a major role in building the terrorist infrastructure. It must be made very clear that what we did in the past [in talking with them] is total nonsense and must be stopped.

Asked if Israel is not bound by its agreements with the Palestinian Authority, Inbar said, "Of course not. They violated their commitments not to act with violence against Israel, and so I don't see any ethical basis for a claim that we are bound to these agreements."

He warned against engaging in dialogue with Hamas: "To say that they have to abandon terrorism [is not enough]; this is exactly what we said about the PLO and Fatah 12 years ago, but yet they continued with terrorism throughout... We need not act like an ostrich, but we should rather tell the world exactly where we stand, and tell them the real truth that they might not like to hear - such as, 'There is no solution.' People don't like to hear bad news, but the PA is bad news.

"The world has become accustomed to seeing the Palestinians as a suffering nation," the professor said, "but it forgets that this is situation is of their own choice."