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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/opinion/17sat1.html
Hamas Must Accept Minimal International Ground Rules
(New York Times) Editorial - * There is something very important that the outside world, particularly the Arab and Islamic world, can do to help the steadily deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian situation. It can make plain to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority that if it means to become the legitimate international voice of the Palestinian people, and a true government in the community of nations, it will have to accept the minimal international ground rules already in place. * These include renouncing terrorism, acknowledging Israel's existence as a sovereign nation, and abiding by formal agreements previously signed by lawful Palestinian negotiators. * Those ground rules need to be accepted by Hamas, but not as some kind of ideological concession. Hamas must see them as an admission ticket to the real world, a necessary rite of passage in the progression from a lawless opposition to a lawful government. * True friends of the Palestinian people need to start using their leverage to talk straight with Hamas.