Hamas’ aspiration to recreate on the Gaza frontier the kind of relative stability that has
characterized Israel’s border with Lebanon supports the evolution of understandings on the
Lebanese model – “rules of the game” of the kind that have in fact evolved between Hamas and
Israel since the September 2005 disengagement. Hamas is unlikely to accede to demands to dismantle
the Palestinian capability to employ force. In its view the record of those Palestinian who have
done so is not worth emulating. But just as it condemns Abu Mazen for embracing negotiations
as a strategic option, it must be wary that support for the use of force not degenerate into an
absolute value itself and an undisciplined preference for violence and terror for its own sake. The
challenge is to craft a political and diplomatic framework in which tools other than force and
violence become the effective option of choice for all concerned.