Slowly, quietly and under the radar, Israel recently completed a full U-turn regarding everything connected to its relations with Hamas. The same Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who declared the day after the Cast Lead operation ended that he would overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza has in recent years become the bulwark of that exact same regime. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon keep their new policy under wraps for internal domestic political considerations, but as for now, the blockade on Gaza is almost nonexistent and Israel maintains ongoing if indirect contact with Hamas. Israel has no intention of operating to change this regime. On the contrary: Israel prays for governmental stability in the Gaza Strip. According to several reports, Israel even conducts indirect negotiations under Qatari mediation for a long-range settlement of the situation, including a cease-fire of five or more years.
This changeover began on the Israeli side among the officers and experts who liaise between the Palestinian territory, mainly Gaza, and the Israeli diplomatic echelons. The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Protective Edge campaign caused tremendous damage in Gaza. The Gaza economy was hit, thousands of people were slain, tens of thousands were wounded and hundreds of thousands were uprooted from their homes. Nevertheless, the fact that there were no protests on the part of the Gaza people against their regime caused the penny to drop on the Israeli side.
