Destroying Hamas is not the answer, warns Pentagon intel chief

'If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse,' says Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the outgoing head of the Defence Intelligence Agency.

ASPEN, Colorado // A top Pentagon intelligence official has warned that the destruction of Hamas would only lead to something more dangerous taking its place, as he offered a grim portrait of a period of enduring regional conflict.

The remarks by Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the outgoing head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, came as Israeli ministers signalled that a comprehensive deal to end the 20-day-old conflict in the Gaza Strip appeared remote.

Lt Gen Flynn disparaged Hamas for exhausting finite resources and know-how to build tunnels that have helped them inflict record casualties on Israelis. Still, he suggested that destroying Hamas was not the answer.

“If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse. The region would end up with something much worse,” Lt Gen Flynn said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

“A worse threat that would come into the sort of ecosystem there – something like ISIS,” he added, referring to the Islamic State, which last month declared an “Islamic caliphate” in the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria.

Confined in the crowded, sandy coast enclave of 1.8 million, where poverty and unemployment hover around 40 per cent, weary Gazans say they hope the battle will break the blockade that Israel and Egypt impose on them.

Israeli officials said any ceasefire must allow the military to carry on hunting down the Hamas tunnel network that criss-crosses the Gaza border.

Lt Gen Flynn’s comments came during a gloomy, broader assessment of unrest across the Middle East, including on-going conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

He said bluntly: “Is there going to be a peace in the Middle East? Not in my lifetime.”

* Reuters