(Washington Post) Editorial - With Palestinian legislative elections planned for January, Mr. Bush will press Mr. Abbas on his plan to allow candidates from the extremist Islamic movement Hamas to run and maybe even join the government that will be formed afterward - even though Hamas has refused to renounce violence as a means of establishing an Islamic state and extinguishing Israel. Israel and its advocates in Washington have launched an aggressive campaign to convince the administration that Hamas must be banned unless it disarms and modifies its ideology. The U.S. can more clearly articulate the principle that Islamic movements - including those with fundamentalist ideologies - must have a place in Muslim democracies, but that they must also check their guns at the door.
2005-10-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive