Netanyahu and Hamas: A symbiotic relationship that costs Israel dearly

Associated Press interviews Mousa Abu Marzouk in US detention. Source: YouTube

By James M. Dorsey

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Hamas political bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk knows a thing or two about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decades-long support for the group.

In fact, Mr. Abu Marzouk is Exhibit A.

Thanks to Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Abu Marzouk operates from the luxury of Doha instead of rotting in an Israeli jail since 1996 when Mr. Netanyahu first became prime minister.

In a move never adequately justified, Mr. Netanyahu, in his first year in office, dropped a request by his predecessor, Shimon Peres, for Mr. Abu Marzouk's extradition from the United States, where he was a resident.

US authorities arrested Mr. Abu Marzouk after putting him on a terrorism watch list. Various Hamas leaders, including Ahmed Yassin, the group’s founder, were in Israeli prisons at the time.

With the Israeli extradition request withdrawn, the United States deported Mr. Abu Marzouk to Jordan in exchange for him giving up his US residency.

By sparing Mr. Abu Marzouk, Mr. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, elevated to new heights the symbiotic relationship between hardliners on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Their actions helped one another sabotage compromise resolutions of their perennial dispute.

As a result, Mr. Netanyahu will likely go down in history as the leader whose misguided, self-serving policies damaged the Jewish state the most.

Israel’s post-Gaza war investigation of the failures that enabled last year’s October 7 Hamas attack will inevitably hold Mr. Netanyahu accountable.

In the ultimate analysis, that may be the key driver of Mr. Netanyahu’s warmongering.