In the fantasy world of the New York Times, Hamas will moderate its irredentist stance and recognize Israel, cease hostilities, and negotiate a two-state solution. I have not fisked the Times in ages. Presented, for your amusement:
A Problem That Can’t Be Ignored
[…] That temptation to walk away needs to be strongly resisted. As bad as things are now, they can get a whole lot worse, and almost certainly will if the outside world averts its attention. Already, rockets are raining down again on innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians, inflaming passions on both sides.
“Already”? The kassams have been raining down on Israel since 2001, and continue almost daily since the withdrawal from Gaza. But note the reference to the Gaza Beach incident. The Times couldn’t possibly be bothered to acknowledge that serious doubt has been raised that it was an Israeli rocket that killed those civilians.
And when those passions explode, the deadly consequences won’t be limited to Israelis and Palestinians alone. They never have been in the past, and are even less likely to be in a world of satellite television, ubiquitous Internet access, multinational terrorism and increasingly long-range missiles.
No, because the 57-member OIC manages to keep “Palestine” a top-burner issue. And the Arab states that lost the Israeli War of Independence keep the open sore of the palestinian refugees as a top issue in the UN every year. The palestinian refugees are the only refugees to have been afforded their very own UN organization. No other UN committee is exclusive to only one people. The world has made this its issue, and it did it long before satellite TV, the Internet, and terrorism.
Further, there is something very important that the outside world, particularly the Arab and Islamic world, can do to help. It can make plain to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority that if it means to become the legitimate international voice of the Palestinian people, and a true government in the community of nations, it will have to accept the minimal international ground rules already in place. These include renouncing terrorism, acknowledging Israel’s existence as a sovereign nation and abiding by formal agreements previously signed by lawful Palestinian negotiators.
The outside world has already made this plain to Hamas. Hamas’ answer: Eff you. Why does the Times think Hamas is going to change that answer? Because they should? Shyeah.
Those are ground rules that have already been accepted by Egypt and Jordan and by the Arab League as a whole in its 2002 Beirut peace initiative. They need to be accepted by Hamas, but not as some kind of ideological concession. Hamas must see them as an admission ticket to the real world, a necessary rite of passage in the progression from a lawless opposition to a lawful government.
Again, what makes the Times editorial writers think that Hamas wants any of those things? They have proven over the past months that they have no intention of changing their genocidal charter, and will continue to work for the destruction of Israel.
Hamas has repeatedly heard this demand from the United States, Europe and Israel, and has repeatedly ignored it, even when it has been backed by halts in vitally needed economic assistance. Hearing it from Arab and Islamic neighbors, in the form of friendly persuasion, would be harder for Hamas to dismiss. It also could prove easier for Hamas to accommodate.
This is the laugh-out-loud line. Where do you think Hamas is getting those millions of dollars in cash that it’s bringing into the terrortories[sic] in suitcases? From those selfsame Arab and Islamic leaders, who say one thing to Condi Rice, and another thing to Ismail Haniyeh.
This page has not hesitated to call on Washington, as Israel’s most important ally, to encourage Israeli leaders to keep the door open to an eventual negotiated peace. In the same spirit, we call on the leaders of Arab and Islamic states to speak firmly and constructively to Hamas.
Yeah, that’ll happen. When Islamists eat pork.
No one expects these countries to remain silent about the sufferings of the Palestinian people or abandon them to their now desperate financial plight. But with support comes leverage, and true friends of the Palestinian people need to start using that leverage to talk straight with Hamas.
Puh-leeze. The other Islamic nations are willing to fight Israel to the last palestinian. They want, and need to have the palestinians suffer, so they can distract their huddled masses from noticing the kleptocrats-in-charge. That’s why polls in so many Arab and Islamic countries say that the problems in “Palestine” are more important than changing the political nature of their own nations.
This is one of the most ignorant, naive editorials I’ve ever read in the Times. It’s a perfect example of the naivete of the left regarding the situation in Israel. Never mind how many times Haniyeh or his buddies proclaim they will never make peace with Israel. Never mind the polls that show the palestinian public is fine with letting Hamas run things for the moment. Because the Times editorial board thinks this should happen, why then, it will happen.
I think not.