Post-Gazette Editorial – 10/16/06

This page was last updated on October 16, 2006.

Deal with Hamas / The U.S. conveniently ignores that it won election; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; October 16, 2006.

Rather than do a point-by-point critique, I’ll stick to one overarching issue.

Elected or not, Hamas is a terrorist organization – as was its predecessor Fatah – and refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. The goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel, not coexistence. When the ultimate goal of your negotiating partner is your death, what is there to negotiate? The manner and time of your death?

Even if we ignore logic, experience tells us negotiating with Palestinian terrorists does no good. Remember all the feel good 1990s-era negotiations with Yasser Arafat that resulted in the Oslo Accords? How did that work out, other than getting Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994?

Using my WABAC machine, I can imagine a 1930s era editorial entitled, “Deal with Hitler.” Oh wait; British PM Neville Chamberlain did that.