Hamas prolongs this war

From The Guardian, Thursday 22 January 2009, by Uri Dromi:

...under [Hamas'] rule, Palestinians will never have their own state...

From his safe haven in Damascus, the capital of terror organisations in our region, Mousa Abu Marzook announced yesterday in the Guardian that in the recent clash in Gaza, Israel had suffered "a decisive loss"...Hamas has presumably won "a decisive victory". ... the destruction brought upon the people of Gaza by the just, self-defensive actions of Israel, is nothing but the spoils of victory; ...the growing awareness among nations of the world that the Palestinians under Hamas may be dooming themselves to never having a state of their own – all this is, in fact, a great political achievement.

We have seen such things before. Following the six-day war – the greatest defeat the Arabs suffered for their aggression against Israel – the Egyptian President Nasser had the chutzpah to declare victory.

And recently, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, from the shelter he has rarely left since the 2006 war, said something of the same sort. The fact that, in spite of his threatening rhetoric to help fellow Gazans, he didn't lift a finger, is beside the point.

So much for victories in the Middle East.

It is easy to dismiss Abu Marzook's ranting as sheer hallucination, except that if the way of Hamas is really the path Palestinians have chosen to pursue their goals, then a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not on the cards. One really needs to read the charter of that movement, drafted in 1988, to understand that ...there could be no political compromise.

...When Hamas took over Gaza, exactly three years ago, I wrote that maybe this was a blessing in disguise:

Come to think of it, I am glad that Hamas won the elections. Things might now become much clearer. There will be no whitewashing, no Arafat-style double-talk, or endless Abbas impotence. It's better to deal with a pure enemy: Fight him ruthlessly while he is your enemy, and sit down and talk to him when he is genuinely willing to cut a deal.

If Hamas stops harassing Israel and smuggling arms, and accepts a two-state solution, it will find in Israel a solid partner in carving out a better future for our children...