Israel is certainly not rejoicing at last week’s bloodshed between different factions of Palestinians. It certainly does not want to see civil war erupt between the Palestinians.
Ambassador of Israel Ehud Gol was in Malta for the past days to attend the official celebrations marking the 58th anniversary of the Independence of the State of Israel, which was celebrated last night.
He told me in an interview yesterday that Israel wants the Palestinian people themselves to reject the Hamas government. The sooner this is done, the better.
Hamas’ election to the government was, he said, a major setback for the peace process.
It has set the state of things back to 1993, with a unique and absurd time-machine effect. It is as if the 1993 accords in Oslo and Washington never took place.
Once again, he said, the Israeli people are faced with a terrorist group at the head of the Palestinian people, a group which does not recognise the right of Israel to exist but nevertheless expects money and other things from Israel.
Officially, of course, Israel has contacts with Abu Maazen, the president of the Palestinian authority, but not with the Hamas government.
“We had warned this was going to happen,” Mr Gol said, especially to the US. What happened was a collective mistake: “You do not allow a terrorist group to participate in a democratic election, just as you do not allow a murderer to roam free on the streets.”
The election process was a democratic one but Hamas is anti-democratic and took advantage of the democratic process, he added.
Nine months ago, Israel carried out a major disengagement from Gaza, uprooting 8,500 people with their dead and all, who had lived in the area for 38 years – three generations of people.
The Palestinian response to this was to elect Hamas.
Israel now has a new government since Ariel Sharon is no longer in power. The task of the new government is to define the borders of Israel.
Israel has meanwhile accepted the concept of a new state for the Palestinians, Mr Gol said. This was stated in Ariel Sharon’s last speech to the United Nations. But Israel does not want to recognise this new Palestinian state with Hamas as its government, a group which has vowed to destroy Israel.
If the new Israeli government finds adequate interlocutors on the Palestinian side, it is ready to discuss with them the borders of Israel. If not, Israel will do it unilaterally.
“Deep down, however,” Mr Gol added, “I believe the average Palestinian admits it was a mistake to elect Hamas. Both Israelis and Palestinians are fed up of the bloodshed and yearn for peace. Eventually, the Palestinian people themselves will get rid of Hamas, but this will not happen overnight; it will happen in the medium term.”
The Palestinian people must be supported financially but everyone who gives financial help must be careful to provide humanitarian aid only to the Palestinian people and not to Hamas, which may use the aid to foment terrorism. Everyone knows now that during Arafat’s time, half the aid went into Arafat’s pockets and the other half was used for terrorism.
Mr Gol was emphatic: the EU must stick to the three pre-conditions it declared to provide aid to the Palestinians and never, under no condition, deviate from them. It must not follow the example of the Swedish government which last week invited a Hamas official over.
Mr Gol spoke with Foreign Minister Michael Frendo on Monday. He told me he is happy that Malta fully adheres to the three pre-conditions.
Mr Gol’s five-year term of office is due to end in August. Last week, in Rome, he scored a major diplomatic success: it was at his official celebration that Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi met for the first time after the election.
He sees no need to do so here, for this is a very different situation. He enjoys good relations both with the government and the opposition and, in fact, he will be meeting Labour leader Alfred Sant today.