JERUSALEM – Hamas was founded in the late 1980s, and by 1992, during Yitzhak Rabinโs time as Israelโs prime minister, it had already become a major Islamic terrorist organization. It had shown a clear penchant for violence, including murder and kidnapping. Rabin initially took decisive steps to consign Hamas to the dustbin of history.
Then, tragically, he blinked. Under pressure from Peace Now, the United Nations, Europe and the White House, Rabin reversed course.
It is instructiveโand deeply soberingโto recall exactly what happened.
On Dec. 13, 1992, Nissim Toledano, an Israeli border police officer, was kidnapped by Hamas in the central Israeli city of Lodโnot in Gaza but in the heart of Israel. Two days later, his body was found. Hamas had sought to exchange Toledano for Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, who at the time was serving a life sentence for ordering the murder of Palestinian collaborators.
The Israeli government responded swiftly and decisively. Rabinโs administration arrested more than 1,000 in relation to the incident, and deported more than 400 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists to Lebanon. These terrorists were sent to a Southern Lebanon no-manโs land between Israeli Defense Forces checkpoints and Lebanese army checkpoints. The expulsions should have been regarded as correct by world leaders. If Rabinโs critics inside Israel and outside of it had the foresight to see Hamas for exactly what it was, so much future carnage would not have happened. The trajectory of Israeli history would have been changed.
Instead, the backlash came quickly and forcefully.
The condemnations were immediate and widespread. The Bush administrationโPresident George H. W. Bushโsโcriticized the expulsions. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater urged nations to โavoid reactions such as deportations that risk complicating the search for peace.โ The statement ignored the context: a murdered Israeli police officer and a terror network responsible for a growing list of atrocities are not morally equivalent. Hamas has never wanted true peace.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on Israel to โrescind the expulsion order.โ Within days, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 799, which condemned Israelโs actions and demanded the immediate return of the deportees. Amnesty International chimed in, saying it was โseriously concernedโ by the deportation. The European Economic Community issued a call for the Israeli government to allow the deportees to return at once.
Egypt also weighed in. Amr Moussa, then Egyptโs Minister of Foreign Affairs, insisted that โthe deportees must be allowed to return, whether they belong to Hamas or Fatah or any other faction,โ and incorrectly argued that Israel did not have โthe right to deport them collectively.โ Israel had every right.
Among those deported was none other than Ismail Haniyeh, who would later become a senior Hamas leader and the mastermind behind countless acts of terrorism. His permanent expulsion could have marked the end of his influence. Instead, it became a temporary inconvenience.
Faced with this wave of international pressure, Rabin surrendered. Within months, the terms of expulsion for the deportees were reduced from two years to just one year. The majority returnedโmany to Gaza, and others to Judea and Samaria. And Hamas, far from being on its way out, reconstituted itself with renewed energy.
If only Rabin had not blinked. If only he had maintained his resolve and followed through with the permanent expulsions that were very much warranted, perhaps Israel could have been spared decades of escalating conflict, suicide bombings, rocket attacks and a terrorist invasion. The failure to decapitate the leadership of Hamas when the opportunity clearly presented itself is one of modern Israelโs most devastating missed chances.
Thirty-three years ago, a prime ministerโthough he had initially made the right choiceโultimately succumbed to both domestic and international pressure. The result was not peace. The result was tragedy, and it set the stage for an unceasing war of terror against Israel.
Rabinโs decision gave Hamas a second life, and Israelis have been paying the price ever since.
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither TheJ.Ca nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safeย Israelย (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israelย advocacy and education organization.