The European Union foreign policy chief explained that the Israeli government created Hamas to divide the Palestinians. Several top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have gloated about using Hamas to divide the Palestinians and prevent international pressure on Tel Aviv to agree to a two-state solution. 

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell explained his view on the relationship between Israel and Hamas on Monday. “It is an unquestionable reality that Israel has bet on dividing the Palestinians, creating a force to oppose Fatah.”

Borrell made similar remarks last month. “We believe that a two-state solution must be imposed from outside to bring peace. Although, I insist, Israel is reaffirming its refusal (of this solution), and to prevent it they have gone so far as to create Hamas themselves,” he said. “Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government to try to weaken the Palestinian Authority of Fatah.”

He clarified his position during the forum on Monday. “I do not say that [Israel] financed it by sending a check, but it has enabled the development of Hamas as a rival to the leading Palestinian party.”

The support for Hamas has been well documented and openly discussed in Tel Aviv. Likud spokesman Jonatan Urich, one of Netanyahu’s media advisers, bragged that one of Netanyahu’s key successes was disconnecting Gaza from the West Bank, both politically and conceptually. “[Netanyahu] basically smashed the vision of the Palestinian state in these two places… some of the achievement is related to the Qatari money reaching Hamas each month.”

“[I]f Hamas crumbles, [Abbas] may rule [Gaza]. If he rules it, voices on the left will encourage … a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as well,” Distel Atbaryan, former minister of information and current Likudnik member of the Knesset, said in defense of the policy. “[T]his is the real reason Netanyahu doesn’t annihilate Hamas, everything else is bullshit.”

As recently as last week, Netanyahu has boasted about his role in the prevention of a Palestinian state. “Everyone knows that I am the one who for decades blocked the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger our existence,” he said.