Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...right? If you bring Hamas into the political process and it acquiesces in a peace deal, will it abandon its dreams of eradicating Israel or not? Will Palestinian statehood moderate Hamas - by making it invested in the status quo - or - simply whet its appetite for more...
...argument for talking to a government that includes Hamas is that Hamas is more like the Taliban and the Baathists than like al-Qaeda. First, Hamas is deeply rooted in Palestinian society and thus very difficult to uproot by force. It operates a vast social-welfare network and according to many polls is now the most popular Palestinian political party. For 22 days beginning last December, Israel pummeled its institutions in Gaza, but the war hasn't turned Palestinians against the group. To the contrary, it is more entrenched than ever in Gaza and on the verge of seizing power...
...nationalist terrorism, they allowed Hamas to hold rallies and appear on television, even as they banned the PLO. So if Hamas, in Israel's view, was moderate once, could it moderate itself again? The group's founding charter - which brims with anti-Semitism and rules out conceding any historically Palestinian land - doesn't exactly fill one with hope. On the other hand, Hamas' leader in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, declared a couple of years ago, "I speak of a Palestinian and Arab demand for a state on 1967 borders. It is true that in reality there will be an entity...
...situation in which we can better influence what it does. That doesn't require any handshakes between Americans, Israelis and Hamas on the White House lawn. What it requires is this: at some point, Fatah and Hamas will probably form another national-unity government, which is what the Palestinian people badly want. In some form or another, that government will most likely include Hamas ministers. America should ignore them, just as we ignore the Hizballah ministers in the Lebanese government. But we should keep dealing with Abbas and the other non-Hamas types. This will do two things. First...
...pursues this path, Netanyahu may grumble. But a full two-thirds of Israelis think their own leaders should talk to a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas. After all, what is the alternative? Trying to keep the Palestinians divided when their people desperately want unity? That will only make Abbas look like a U.S. and Israeli stooge; keep Gaza a festering, terrorism-breeding hellhole; destroy much of Barack Obama's goodwill in the Muslim world; and foster war between Hamas and Fatah, and Hamas and Israel...