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Palestinian Civil War Casts Shadow Over Peace Talks
[JTA] Jonathan Schanzer - When President-elect Obama sets out to rekindle Palestinian-Israeli peace, he will be faced with a vexing problem: Which Palestinian faction/non-state represents the Palestinians? With whom should Washington negotiate? If it is Abbas' Fatah West Bank faction, Obama will be working with an unelected government while effectively ignoring the Hamas regime in Gaza. If the president negotiates with Hamas, he would be negotiating with terrorists - something that would fly in the face of U.S. policy dating back to the Nixon administration. If Obama and his advisers fail to confront this critical issue, we risk engaging in yet another failed round of diplomacy. The writer, a former terrorism analyst for the U.S. Treasury Department, is the director of policy for the Jewish Policy Center.