Olmert: Hamas Not a Strategic Threat

Wed Feb 22, 1:18 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that Hamas is not a strategic threat to the Jewish state, signaling that he has no plans to take military action against the violent group, which swept Palestinian elections last month.

As Hamas worked to form a new Cabinet, the group struck a deal to receive financing from Iran, a virulent enemy of Israel. Israel threatened to block the money and warned the Palestinians against aligning themselves with an international "pariah."

Hamas, which has killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings, has rejected international calls to moderate, despite Israel's efforts to isolate the group internationally and Western threats to cut off vital financial aid.

Earlier this week, Israel froze the transfer of about $50 million in monthly taxes it collects for the Palestinians in response to the inauguration of the new Hamas-led parliament on Saturday. However, it held off on far more severe measures - including sealing the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.

Addressing parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Olmert signaled that Israel will continue to squeeze the Palestinians through diplomatic - not military - action.

According to participants in the closed meeting, Olmert said the Palestinian Authority will be "contaminated with terror" once a Hamas Cabinet takes power.

However, "Hamas is not a strategic threat," he said.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit said the government did not fear Hamas and did not plan extreme measures that could be counterproductive.

"We're not afraid of the Hamas in any way. They do not threaten our existence," he told The Associated Press.

The Palestinian Authority depends heavily on the Israeli tax transfers and international aid and has turned to the Arab and Islamic world to help make up for the threatened funding cuts.

Tehran offered Wednesday to help finance a Hamas-run Palestinian Authority, Iranian state radio reported. The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, announced the offer after a meeting with Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political leader, the radio said.

Larijani said the deal was meant to make up for threatened cuts in U.S. aid. "We will certainly help the Palestinians," he said. The radio report did not give details of the aid.

Hamas says it already receives small amounts of Iranian funds, though the Palestinian Authority gets no money from Iran.

Israeli officials warned that a Hamas-led government would further isolate itself if it accepted Iranian aid, and they threatened to block the money.

"The incoming Palestinian leadership has to decide if it wants to be part of the legitimate international community or if it wants, through its own actions, to align itself with international pariahs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

He said Israel would be "entitled to use all legal means" to prevent the money from going to "support terrorism and to strengthen a terrorist leadership."

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said Hamas would find "creative ways" to get the money.

Israeli analyst Eran Lehrman said it would be much more difficult for Iran to get money to the Palestinian Authority over Israeli objections than it is to get smaller amounts to Hamas directly.

"There are all sorts of ways of dripping in aid to terrorists. This is not the same as transferring large amounts of money in open air to pay salaries," he said. "This would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Iran."

Since taking control of parliament Saturday, Hamas has worked to attract partners into a broad-based coalition, in part to soften international opposition. Hamas leaders met Wednesday with members of Fatah, the Palestinian ruling party it trounced in the election. No agreements were reached, though the sides agreed to continue talks.

Sheetrit, an Olmert ally, said Wednesday that a peace agreement with the Palestinians could be reached quickly if Hamas abandoned violence and recognized the Jewish state.

Sheetrit is among a group of politicians who broke away from the hardline Likud Party late last year to form the centrist Kadima Party, which is projected to win March 28 elections.

Sheetrit compared the Palestinians' situation to Likud's 1977 election victory under the leadership of the fiery Menachem Begin. The following year, Begin shocked the world by opening talks with Egypt, leading to the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab country in 1979.

Sheetrit said Begin's hard-line credentials gave him the stature to seek peace with Israel's enemies. Likewise, Hamas, after five bloody years of fighting, has the strength and credibility with the Palestinian public to pursue a peace deal, he said.

"I hope that what will happen with the Hamas will ... (mirror) what happened to the Likud," Sheetrit said.

Sheetrit said Israel is in no rush to make concessions as long as Hamas refuses to change. In the worst case, Israel would even be willing to round up Hamas' political leaders, he said.

"Suppose that they really behave in the worst way ... that they will start to build a terror machine acting against Israel," he said. "In that case we'll have no choice but to get into them and split them up and to put everyone in jail, the prime minister, the ministers, everyone."

Also Wednesday, about 200 Fatah activists protested the decision by the Hamas parliament speaker, Abdel Aziz Duaik, to freeze last-minute appointments made by the old Fatah-dominated parliament. On Tuesday, Duaik burst into the office of a Fatah official newly appointed as parliament secretary and told him to quit.

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