Israel hunts a monster it helped create

Kenan Malik

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"They want Hamas to remain in power," claimed the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after European and Canadian government criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza.

Many British commentators agree, denouncing the UK government for standing with Hamas. The horror killings of two Jewish Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC added weight to such condemnation, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar insisting on a “direct line” from criticism of Israel to antisemitic murders.

The irony, though, is that until 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched its murderous assault on the Nova music festival and nearby kibbutzim, the jibe might have with greater accuracy been aimed at Israel itself. For 50 years, it tolerated, even supported, the organisation and its precursors, regarding Hamas as a useful weapon with which to enfeeble the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and sow discord within Palestinian ranks.

"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas," Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud's Knesset members in 2019.

On 7 October, the Times of Israel noted the day after the slaughter, the strategy "of indirectly strengthening Hamas... went up in smoke".