in prison abroad. But Begin prohibited his men from using their weapons to defend themselves against Jews.
Such a struggle among the Palestinians will not turn into a civil war, because the entire Palestinian people oppose this strenuously. Everybody remembers that during the Arab Rebellion of 1936, the Palestinian leader at that time, the Grand Mufti Hadj Amin al-Husseini, butchered his Palestinian rivals. During the three years of the rebellion (called "the Events" in Zionist terminology) Palestinians killed more of their own people than they killed of their British and Jewish opponents.
The result: when the Palestinian people came face to face with their supreme existential test, in the war of 1948, they were split and splintered, lacking unified leadership and dependent on the mercies of the bickering Arab governments, who were intriguing against each other. They were unable to stand up to the much smaller organized Jewish community, which rapidly set up a unified and efficient army. The result was the Nakba, the terrible historic tragedy of the Palestinian people. What happened in 1936 still touches the life of every single Palestinian to this very day.
It is difficult to start a civil war if the people are against it. Even provocations from outside-and I assume that there has been no lack of these-cannot ignite it.
Therefore I did not doubt for a moment that in the end a Unity Government would indeed come about, and I am glad that this has now happened.
Why is this good for Israel? I am going to say something that will shock many Israelis and their friends in the world:
If Hamas did not exist, it would have to be invented.
If a Palestinian government had been set up without Hamas, we should have to boycott it until Hamas was included.
And if negotiations do lead to a historical settlement with the Palestinian leadership, we should make it a condition that Hamas, too, must sign it.
Sounds crazy? Of course. But that is the lesson history teaches us from the experience of other wars of liberation.
The Palestinian population in the occupied territories is almost evenly divided between Fatah and Hamas. It makes no sense at all to sign an agreement with half a people and continue the war against the other half. After all, we shall make serious concessions for peace-such as withdrawing to much narrower borders and giving East Jerusalem back to its owners. Shall we do so in return for an agreement that half the Palestinian people will not accept and will not be committed to? To me this sounds like the height of folly.