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Blame Hamas: Israel Still Lacks a Partner for Peace

[San Diego Union-Tribune] Editorial - Don't blame Secretary of State Rice for the meager results obtained in her latest trip to Jerusalem. The problem here isn't with the Americans, who desperately want and would so clearly benefit from a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Nor is Israel the problem. Olmert and his government remain committed in principle, as have all recent Israeli governments, to a two-state solution encompassing the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The problem lies with the Palestinians. Until they sort out their internal differences over whether they should even negotiate with Israel, there will be only barren ground for nurturing the compromises peace would require. Hamas, which won last year's legislative elections and thus controls the PA's parliament, refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, refuses to renounce violence against Israelis, and refuses to honor past Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Until Hamas relents, and so long as it holds a whip hand among the Palestinians, the Israelis can reasonably ask whether Abbas and his Fatah party can deliver on anything that might be negotiated. Israel will have no reliable, or even feasible, partner for peace so long as Hamas remains intransigent and rejectionist.
2007-02-22 01:00:00
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