Menahem Froman is one of the few Israelis to have dared sit down with arch-enemy Hamas.
But he’s not just any Israeli. He is a Jewish settler and a rabbi who lives in the West Bank.
Last month, fear struck deep in the heart of Israel when the radical Islamist movement won a landslide victory in the Palestinian elections.
Faced with the likelihood of a Hamas-led government, Israel has vowed not to have any contact with the group, which makes no secret of its desire to destroy the Jewish State.
But Froman, chief rabbi of the Tekoa settlement near Bethlehem, believes otherwise.
He is convinced that a peace agreement can be reached with the radical group through mutual religious understanding.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” over Hamas’s rise to power, he said at his modest home which boasts a breathtaking view of the Judean hills, tinged with the first green of spring.
Although he admits to “serious concerns”, there is a “positive side” to Hamas’s rise to power.
Froman believes that Israel and the Palestinians are in a unique position to be able to bridge the growing chasm between the Islamic and Western civilisations.
“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an expression of the conflict between Western and Islamic civilisations. It is not just a problem for the two tiny nations living here but for the entire world.
“Our role in the world is to bridge that gap. There is a possibility we could make peace … But you cannot make peace here without taking religious issues into consideration. Many people have tried, but it always falls apart.”
Froman is something of a lone voice in the wilderness.
Over the past 30 years, he has met an array of controversial Palestinian figures, including the late Yasser Arafat and Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in March 2004.
A survey published on Tuesday showed most Israelis believe Hamas’s electoral victory constitutes an existential threat to the Jewish state, and 83% saying they see little to no chance of any peace agreement with a Hamas-led government.
Hamas is “not a movement which seeks after peace. They have murdered a lot of people,” Froman says soberly.
And he should know. His uncle was shot dead in the 1930s by Ezzedine al-Qassam, a militant Palestinian cleric who fought the British during the Mandate years and whose name was later adopted by Hamas’s armed wing.
Ironically, the murder saw the British authorities giving Froman’s father permission to enter Palestine at a time when the British were allowing very few Jews in.
That permission meant that unlike most of the rest of his family, Froman’s father managed to escape the Nazi Holocaust.
“I owe my existence to Hamas,” he says with a wry smile. “I have to be thankful to them for that.”
Since Hamas’s victory two weeks ago, Froman has been in indirect contact with the group, trying to set up further talks. As yet, nothing has been arranged.
Froman has met on several occasions with senior leader Mahmud al-Zahar.
“Zahar asked me: ‘How do you cope with having a secular government? Why don’t you fight it?’ So I told him: ‘Until you learn how to relate to secular people and Western culture, you will never accept Israel.”
Froman says the vast majority of Palestinians are not secular but religious.
“That doesn’t mean that they are all in favour of Hamas. It means the man in the street in Nablus, in Jenin or in Hebron is a religious person.”
Froman, who would happily continue living in Tekoa even when it becomes part of a Palestinian state, says Israel must also examine its society in order to reach peace.
“Israeli society first has to learn how to deal with its own religious elements,” he said. “Only then can it learn how to deal with Hamas.” – AFP