In Slate, Shmuel Rosner makes a point that should not be lost on anyone who actually wants to see peace in and around Israel and the Palestinians. The dilemma, which Blair and others seem to want to sidestep, is this:
What if the democratically elected Palestinian government doesn't want peace with Israel?
There are lots of pundits who believe that the Palestinians voted for Hamas not because they agreed with Hamas's political platform of fundamentalism, terrorism, and rejectionism, but because Hamas is less corrupt than Fatah. And the corollary therefore must be that Israel should redouble its efforts to soften up on the Palestinians, e.g., dismantle the barrier, get rid of the checkpoints, release prisoners, etc. And that a further corollary to that is that Israel's failure to do will cause more terrorism.
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