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Talk Is Cheap

(New Republic) Robert Satloff - * The Middle East policy buzz du jour is whether the Bush administration will jettison years of precedent and authorize diplomatic contact with Hamas, the radical Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas won nearly half of all municipal councils up for grabs in recent voting. * To many observers, Hamas is growing so powerful that American diplomats would be willfully negligent by failing to even talk with the group. The rub, of course, is that Hamas - an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement - is more than just a party with which we disagree; it is a terrorist organization, responsible for the murders of hundreds of Israelis, Americans, and citizens of many other countries. Its hate-filled charter - which endorses just about every crazy conspiracy theory about Jews, Freemasons, Lions, and Rotarians ever conceived - specifically calls for Israel's destruction. According to U.S. law, any contact with Hamas is prohibited; facilitating the transfer of funds to Hamas is a federal crime. * Which is the correct approach to Hamas - engagement or isolation? The answer lies in our historical experience with another terrorist organization eager for contact with Washington: the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is only worth engaging Hamas after it fulfills a set of commitments that would, by their very nature, transform the organization from a radical terrorist group into a legitimate political party. And such concessions, unlike those made by the PLO, will have to be tested over time. * In the '70s and '80s, the PLO was eager to open a political dialogue with the U.S. Many regional "experts" urged Washington to recognize the PLO's popularity on the Arab street and talk directly with Arafat as a way to jumpstart peace talks, but successive administrations demanded that the PLO first renounce terrorism, accept UN Security Council Resolution 242 which called for "secure and recognized boundaries" for all states in the Middle East, and recognize Israel's right to exist. * Local popularity - whether measured by polling data or the ballot box - should not by itself merit Washington's seal of approval. Two other tests are key: a terror test (does the group renounce armed struggle to achieve its aims and accept negotiations as the only means to a settlement?) and a values test (does the group recognize Israel's legitimate right to exist?). If Hamas wants a relationship with the U.S., it should meet both tests. The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2005-06-17 00:00:00
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