Hamas permeates Palestinian society; from the college professor to the cab driver. Hamas is not an organization, it's an idea; and you can't bomb an idea into submission.This statement reminded me of a question on my International Politics final. The question was something to the effect of "With decades of the Arab-Israeli conflict why have there been no political theories to address said conflict. My answer was as follows:
The reason that there has been no coherent IP theory to address Israel/Palestine is because up until very recently the prominent Political Science theories have been rational theories. Rational Theories focus on rational actors meaning state actors. Everything boils down to the state and the power of the state. What you have in Hamas is a non state actor. Hamas is the idea of the Palestinian homeland, the idea of freedom. So for there is no framework for rational theories to build upon.Hamas cannot be bombed into submission like a state government can be. Hamas cannot be subdued by the power of realist theory, unless there is genocide. Which seems the be the path that Israel has set themselves upon.
Liberal political theory wont work either. Hamas cannot be a partner for trade because Hamas has no economic structure, no viable land or natural resources. the only thing that Hamas has to export is ideology and a hunger for freedom; an ideology of winning this freedom at any cost. And for every Palestinian killed that ideology is being exported at an increasing rate.
It eludes me. The rationale behind Israel's actions absolutely eludes me. How does the most hated state in the region think that the way to create a symbiotic relationship with its neighbors is to kill them? How does Israel think that killing Palestinian civilians will all of the sudden make Hamas' agents of terror see the error of their ways?
