While Israel has already had two elections this year, and may possibly have a third in 2020, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not held elections in fourteen years. But Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president, has recently changed his tune, calling for parliamentary elections to take place in the West Bank and Gaza, to be followed by presidential elections at a later date. Hamas, which till now has opposed such proposals, also supports the idea. Michael Milstein comments:

The [Palestinian] public has become increasingly alienated from the PA for a number of years, criticizing governmental corruption and the paralysis in the political system under Abbas’s centralized administration. . . . It appears that the current public protests in Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, which focus on economic concerns and governmental corruption, are uncomfortable for Ramallah, given the basic resemblance of the situation in those countries to the state of affairs in the PA. The proposal of elections may be designed as a preemptive measure—a demonstration of apparent readiness to take internal corrective measures before broad-based public protest aimed at overthrowing the existing order develops on the West Bank.

It is possible that the change in Hamas’s attitude toward elections, at least on the declaratory level, is a result of fear that the popular regional uprising will [likewise] spread to the Gaza Strip, where the situation is far more explosive than that in the West Bank.

From Israel’s perspective, so long as elections are held solely on the West Bank and without participation by Hamas, there is no need to prevent them. They will not provide Abbas with substantial genuine legitimacy, [nor] will they involve a concrete risk for Israel, either in the sense of strengthening Hamas in the West Bank and its integration in the governmental establishment or by enabling Hamas to gain control over parts of the West Bank. Israel will have to intervene, however, if agreement begins to emerge between the PA and Hamas on general elections [in which the latter fields candidates].

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.