Hamas cannot be partner for peace, says Dore Gold

A long-time foreign policy adviser of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rules out the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as a potential peace partner for Israel.

“There is no question that Hamas is part of the jihadist universe,” says Dore Gold, the incoming director general of the Foreign Ministry and former ambassador to the United Nations.

“It is not a candidate to become a political partner,” he tells journalists as his think-tank, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, unveils a study of the 2014 war in Gaza, where Hamas is the de facto power.

Gold was named to the Foreign Ministry post last week by Netanyahu, who has retained the ministerial portfolio himself.

The position of deputy foreign minister is held by an MK from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

Last week, President Reuven Rivlin appeared to challenge a long-standing taboo on talks with Hamas, saying he would talk to anyone.

— AFP

Dore Gold, then Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaks with reporters at Chesapeake College Monday, October 19, 1998, in Wye Mills, Maryland (AP Photo/Khue Bui/File)