Last month, the terrorist organization Hamas swept the Palestinian elections, taking over the Palestinian government. Hamas continues to resist international demands to moderate, while carrying on its suicide bombings and deadly rocket strikes against Israel. It refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, seeking to do everything within its power to destroy the tiny Jewish nation. Even worse, Hamas has strong connections and support from nuclear aspirant Iran, the number-one state sponsor of terrorism, whose own president has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

With all this next door to Israel, Israel’s acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, made a naïve and recklessly optimistic appraisal of Hamas. In a closed meeting, Olmert told the parliament’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that “Hamas is not a strategic threat” (abc, February 22). He told the committee that Israel would use diplomacy, rather than military action, to pressure the Palestinians.

Olmert’s optimism contradicts his own intelligence and military officials’ assessments. Only a few days earlier, Israel’s intelligence director Yuval Diskin told the same Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that “Hamas represents a strategic threat to Israel” (bbc, February 21).

Diskin warned the Israeli government to not be fooled by Hamas’s “sweet talk” and added: “If a radical, Sunni Hamas is established on our border, then all the extreme, radical elements will be drawn there from across the world, from places like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and they will spread out along Israel’s borders” (ibid.). Israeli generals echoed Diskin’s assessment of Hamas’s victory. They understand that a politically dominant Hamas doesn’t mean a moderate Hamas. It means a Hamas with greater opportunity to achieve its goal of wiping Israel out. Hamas would freely accept any support from fellow radical Islamic organizations or nations, such as Iran. And all those weapons and aid for terrorist operations would end up next door to Israel.

How can that not be a threat to Israel’s existence?

Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader and chairman of Israel’s conservative Likud party, agrees with the defense officials. “[Hamas] is in cahoots with Iran, and both want to wipe Israel off the map,” the internationally recognized expert on terrorism told reporters in response to Olmert’s remarks. “Hamas is a strategic threat to the entire region. We are likely to find ourselves with a Hamas state that begins on the borders of Iraq and stretches to the outskirts of the Dan region, and to which all possible types of weapons will flow. … I know that my Likud colleagues and I will know how to deal with such a threat” (Haaretz,February 24).

Netanyahu, whose campaign slogan is “Strong against Hamas,” provides a stark contrast to Olmert for Israelis, who are preparing to vote for a new ruling party later this month. With Hamas’s victory and Olmert’s statements, Israelis are going to have to ask themselves some tough questions. Did Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip make Israel safer, or did it only weaken Israel and empower its enemies? Is Olmert the best man to protect Israel from its enemies? Will they accept the assessment of this inexperienced leader? Or will they side with the conclusions of their defense experts?

The elections on March 28 will demonstrate which side the Israelis agree with.

The editor in chief of the Trumpet magazine recorded a Key of Davidprogram in January about a prophecy in Zechariah 14:2 showing that the Palestinians will take over one half of Jerusalem by force. Based on this prophecy about the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli government, Gerald Flurry stated that Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party could make a comeback and win the Israeli elections.

Hamas’s victory and Sharon’s stroke did improve the prospects for conservative politicians in Israel. Olmert’s ignorant statements open the door that much more for conservatives to bounce back in these upcoming elections.

Whether or not Netanyahu is elected, the prophecy in Zechariah 14 indicates the new government will act with more caution toward the Hamas-led Palestinian government. For more information on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem, read our editor’s article “Jerusalem Is About to Be Cut in Half.”