Hamas deputy chief praises ‘political paralysis’ in Israel
Saleh al-Arouri says deadlock a sign that the country is in decline, after years of stability
Adam Rasgon is a former Palestinian affairs reporter at The Times of Israel
The deputy leader of the Hamas terror group said ongoing political instability in Israel points to the decline of the Jewish state.
Saleh al-Arouri, who is a part of Hamas’s leadership based abroad, made the statement in an interview with the terror group’s Al-Aqsa TV Tuesday evening as the deadline for Blue and White’s Benny Gantz to form a coalition quickly approached.
Both Gantz and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu have failed to form a government despite two successive elections. On Wednesday, Gantz ended his bid to cobble together a coalition, likely paving the way for a third election in under a year.
Arouri said Israel had seen an “extraordinary amount of stability,” especially under Netanyahu, who has been prime minister since 2009.
“Over the past number of decades, this Israeli regime has succeeded in building an effective political system that is internally efficient, able to serve this entity and build diverse and strong relations with the whole world — even to the point that it has made inroads in our Arab and Palestinian world. … Stability gives them power,” he stated.
But he described the political chaos over the last year, in which Israel has been run by a caretaker government, as “a paralysis” that was harming the state.
“This current political paralysis, contradiction of interests and the narrow-minded calculations that put the interests of an individual or party above their general interest is an indication that this entity’s state of affairs is deteriorating, if God wills,” he said.
“I see that their political relations are being harmed and their economic relations and conditions are being harmed because of this paralysis. I hope they do not have a way out of this paralysis.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinians last held parliamentary elections in 2006, in a vote in which Hamas-affiliated candidates won a majority of seats. But internal strife with rival Fatah led to a bloody coup in 2007, resulting in the ousting of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority from Gaza.
Ramallah-based Palestinian officials have recently said they would like to hold legislative and presidential elections in the near future and Hamas has indicated support for such a process.
The terror group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, also has negotiated several unofficial ceasefires with Israel through international interlocutors.
