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Intransigent Hamas: It's Easy to Call for a Middle East Peace. But What If Palestinian Leaders Don't Want It?

[Washington Post] Editorial - While stirring but thoughtless appeals for a Middle East peace settlement continue to ring out around the world, the foreign minister of Egypt, Ahmed Aboul Gheit - who has spent the past several months immersed in a failing effort to restore the broken connections between the Palestinian Authority and its international donors, as well as Israel - placed the blame exactly where it belongs: on the Palestinian political leadership. "The Palestinian situation is marred by sharp divisions and battling; it is a misery and shameful for any Arab and any Palestinian," the minister told the government newspaper al-Ahram. Negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, and Western aid to the Palestinian government, can't go forward because the governing Hamas movement refuses to recognize Israel or previous Israeli-Palestinian accords. It also won't renounce the use of violence against Israeli soldiers or civilians, or release the soldier its militants abducted from inside Israel in June. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh spelled out Hamas' position at a rally last weekend: "I tell you with all honesty, we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel." It's easy enough for global leaders to issue flowery appeals for action on the Middle East or to imply that progress would be possible if only the United States used its leverage with Israel. The stubborn reality is that there can be no movement toward peace until a Palestinian leadership appears that is ready to accept a two-state solution.
2006-10-11 01:00:00
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