RogerINtheUSA wrote:
"Carter's negotiations with Hamas has apparently strengthened them and given them legitimacy, which will probably make a lasting peace more difficult."
Legitimacy? What an uninformed word to use in this context.
Hamas is as legitimate as it it gets. They were elected in an election far cleaner than the one that put Bush into office. Cleaner, too, than Kennedy's election. And cleaner still than the original congressional election of Lyndon Johnson (according to Robert Caro's distinguished biography).
Hamas genuinely represents the views of a great many Palestinians. You cannot have peace unless you take account of them. Only a tyrant spirit would say otherwise.
And for years, Israel secretly subsidized Hamas to provide a conflict with Fatah. Israel is not in the habit of subsidizing organizations that it believes are a genuine threats to it. Israel achieved its desired conflict, only adding to the miseries of the Palestinians.
And now, to squeeze even more juice out of the situation, Israel's government treats Hamas as hideous demons, unfit to breathe the same air.
The people of Israel, as measured in polls, don't even agree with their government. A majority says Israel should negotiate with Hamas.
The dichotomy between the sense of the people and the brutal obtuseness of their government is possible because of the highly fractured party system leaving minority extreme views as decisive in elections. Of course, governments also have a way of effectively ignoring public opinion at times, as Tony Blair did in dragging Britain into the war crime of Iraq.
That ridiculous proposition - not taking account of the other side's views - is pretty much the official (unarticulated in public) policy of Israel. Palestinians are supposed to present themselves on bended knee to beg for whatever little Israel is inclined to give.
Reportedly, in recent talks, Olmert "offered" 65% of the Palestinians’ own West Bank to the pitiful Abbas. That amount of territory is not sufficient to even make a viable state. And one can only imagine the degrading conditions attached to the "offer."
