(National Review) Emanuele Ottolenghi - By winning, Hamas has to govern, which means they have to tell the world, very soon, a number of things. They will have to say whether they accept the roadmap. They will have to take control over security and decide whether they use it to wage war. Until this week, the PA could hide behind the excuse that they were not directly responsible for rockets fired on Israel or suicide attacks against civilians, and they could not rein in the "militants." Now the "militants" are the militia of the ruling party. Hamas and the PA will be the same. Hamas will have to tell the Egyptians what the PA under Hamas stands for. Egypt dreads Hamas' twin, the Muslim Brotherhood, at home. This experience will also tell us whether Palestine will become a Sunni Iran. The issue is not whether Europe, the U.S., or Israel should talk to Hamas. The issue is whether there is anything to talk about.
2006-01-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive