|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2006/02/15/opinion/edkiss.php
Sharon's Legacy and Hamas
(International Herald Tribune) Henry A. Kissinger - The so-called peace process has assumed a reciprocal willingness to compromise. But traditional diplomacy works most effectively when there is a general agreement on goals; a minimum condition is that both sides accept each other's legitimacy, that the right of the parties to exist is taken for granted. Such a reciprocal commitment has been lacking between Israel and the Palestinians. The emergence of Hamas as the dominant faction in Palestine should not be treated as a radical new departure. Hamas represents the mind-set that prevented the full recognition of Israel's legitimacy by the PLO for all these decades; kept Arafat from accepting partition of Palestine at Camp David in 2000; produced two intifadas and consistently supported terrorism, on occasion explicitly, always tacitly.