Why didn’t he? It isn’t as if the jihadists didn’t make their intentions clear — as if they weren’t clear already. This just underscores the willful blindness that afflicts virtually all of the ruling class, all over the West as well as in Israel, and shows how policy blunders follow from an unwillingness to name the enemy properly.
“Peres: I didn’t imagine Qassams would be fired from Gaza after pullout,” by Lily Galili for Haaretz (thanks to WriterMom):
“Although in ’98 everything seemed dark because of Rabin’s murder, I believed we could still move the peace process ahead more quickly. I did not think we’d have so many problems. I believed the separation between the West Bank and Gaza would make things easier, not harder. I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Qassams from there; I did not imagine that Hamas would show so strongly in the elections.” […]
We asked Peres to name what he thought were his greatest achievements. His response: relations with France, Operation Kadesh, Israel Aerospace Industries, the Dimona nuclear reactor, defense research, Entebbe, rehabilitation of the army after the Yom Kippur War, overcoming the inflation of the 1980s, peace with Jordan, Oslo, and the establishment of cities like Upper Nazareth.
Ruby just smiled and said, “Ah, you know some babies never learn.”