[Dean's World] Aziz P: negotiate with Hamas

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
negotiate with Hamas
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1203685009.shtml


   That's basically what the former Chief of Mossad, Efraim Halevy, says
   [1]Israel has to do. Some highlights:

     MJ: Should Hamas be required to recognize Israel's right to exist
     before Israel would talk with it?

     EH: Israel has been successful in inflicting very serious losses
     upon Hamas in both Gaza and the West Bank and this has certainly
     had an effect on Hamas, who are now trying to get a "cease fire."
     But this has not cowed them into submission and into accepting the
     three-point diktat that the international community has presented
     to them: to recognize Israel's right to exist; to honor all
     previous commitments of the Palestinian Authority; and to prevent
     all acts of violence against Israel and Israelis. The last two
     conditions are, without doubt, sine qua non. The first demands an a
     priori renunciation of ideology before contact is made. Such a
     demand has never been made before either to an Arab state or to the
     Palestinian Liberation Organization/Fatah. There is logic in the
     Hamas' position that ideological "conversion" is the endgame and
     not the first move in a negotiation.

     MJ: Again and again, Israel and Washington too have tried to
     engineer which Palestinians would come to power, to whom they would
     speak or recognize, etc. Is this itself problematic? Should the
     West step back from trying to manipulate internal Palestinian
     politics?

     EH: Yes, for two reasons. First, is the sovereign right of
     Palestinians to decide who their leadership should be. I think that
     is the basis of democracy. More than that, it is the best possible
     way in my opinion for a country or society to determine how it
     wants to be governed and how it wants to be lead. And second, so
     far it must be admitted that attempts to do this [manipulate
     internal Palestinian politics] have not succeeded. After all, in
     the final analysis, it would not be possible to create and fashion
     a leadership from without.

   Of course this will piss off the insane, rightwing nutcase settler
   fringebats who think nothing of dragging their children into warzones,
   who pretend at self-reliance while being heavily subsidized at the
   ordinary Israeli taxpayers' expense, and who are ready and willing to
   attack other Jews.

   However, why should the lunatic settler fringe deserve a veto over the
   peace process? They have an invested stake in the status quo. Just
   like the scum Palestinian terrorists who target children on school
   buses or civilians at Sbarro, they need the conflict to continue to
   justify their agenda. The ordinary folk of Israel and palestine want
   peace, but they are all held hostage.

References

   1. http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/02/israel-mossad-out-of-the-shadows.html