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Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-satloff19apr19,0,7779348.story
The False Hope of Embracing Hamas
[Los Angeles Times] Robert Satloff - No Hamas leader has ever endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so embracing Hamas can never advance the prospects of such a solution. Hamas has no advocates of peace with Israel. The internal divide is between those who call for a tahdiya (a brief lull in the fighting) and those who favor a hudna (a longer-term armistice). Neither approximates peace with Israel. Against this backdrop, it would be folly for the U.S. government to demand less of Hamas today than it asked of the PLO 20 years ago. The Bush administration's last-ditch effort to promote an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is, at best, a great gamble and, at worst, a costly distraction. Instead of fulfilling promises to build the Palestinian economy, civic institutions and a functional security structure, President Bush changed gears and is now pushing for a breakthrough by the end of his term. This dilution of U.S. effort will likely mean that nothing is achieved - neither diplomatic success nor progress on the ground. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.