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Palestine on the Brink

(New York Daily News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - Should the West any longer have an interest in establishing an independent state of Palestine now that Hamas has virtually transformed Palestine into a terrorist state that now threatens Jordan and Egypt, as well as Israel? Hamas is not just another nationalist political party. It is a radical Islamist terrorist group with a totalitarian DNA. Its leaders continue to support suicide-bombing terrorism. They describe the random murder of innocent civilians as a legitimate form of "self-defense." According to the Arab newspaper Al Hayat, their leading terrorist, Mohammed Deif, is even holding discussions with al-Qaeda. Hamas supported the Popular Resistance Committee, a terrorist group in Gaza, and appointed its leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana, as the head of a new Hamas security force, despite the fact that the PRC killed three Americans in the Gaza Strip in 2003 - not to mention dozens of Israelis. Hamas is not a democratic government. Yes, it won an election, but a democracy is defined in practice by nonviolence, by respect for the rule of law, for minorities, and for individual rights, by an independent media and judiciary, and by a reasonable respect for agreements made by predecessor governments. No one who knows the Hamas leaders expects them to mellow in office. They cannot accept a lasting peace with Israel because they cannot accept Israel. The surprise plan proposed last week by Abbas, giving Hamas ten days to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, is not to be taken seriously. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted by Abbas' pathetic eleventh-hour gambit.
2006-05-30 00:00:00
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