ISRAEL: A solution not on the table

The mood was ugly outside the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem Thursday night. Inside the seminary lay the bodies of eight students, along with the body of the Palestinian gunman who killed them.

Outside, a right-wing activist complained to me that the U.S. was preventing Israel from simply killing or exiling all the Palestinians. Even the cooler heads in the crowd said there was no hope ever for a negotiated peace and that the government should end all negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

But one young man, whose friend had escaped the attack by diving under a parked car, proposed a solution so startling that I had to track him down later and confirm that I heard him right.

The only hope, said 19-year-old Ephraim Friedman was to stop talking to Abbas and start negotiating with Hamas — the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Despite defeating Abbas' Fatah Party in parliamentary elections, Hamas presides over only a mini-state — a pariah cut off by Israel, America and the international community for its refusal to officially acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

“They’re negotiating with a puppet named Abbas whose own people don’t even respect him. At the end of the day [Hamas] is the choice of the Palestinian people,” Friedman said. “Hamas are killers and they’re the worst of the worst, but we have to find a way to sit down in the same room with them.”

Friedman acknowledged that Israeli public opinion wouldn’t allow the government to even hint at direct contact with Hamas. Any negotiations would have to be top secret.

If Prime Minister Ehud Olmert publicly proposed talking to the group, “he wouldn’t last a week.”

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Comments

[zuma]

And Israel which settled on Palestinian land and took it and killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians to keep that land can be trusted?
The Unites States, has pumped billions of taxpayers money into the area keeping both sides for what?

There is exactly nothing different today than there was when the Brits gave Jews the land of the Palestinians.
This was mainly done because the Christian west did not want them in their countries.

But then then the west had no obligation to allow them to come their.

I suggest we cut off all aid to both the Palestinians and Israelis and wish t hem good luck. It is not something we can provide any help with! After 50 years of trying, t hat point is clear. Neither country matters much in the scheme of things. And to be honest, I am tired of paying and paying and paying!

[newageblues]

There was a recent poll in Israel that had a majority supporting talk with Hamas. And Ephraim Friedman is not necessarily right about Hamas' popularity. Polls showed a decline in their popularity since they took office, though there could some temporary rallying around them after the recent Israel attacks, as well as anger at them for provoking it.
But I think he's right that talking to Hamas is better than not talking. I don't understand this being afraid to talk stuff, or whatever you want to call it, whether it's coming from Israel or the US. What's the matter, not so sure of the full justice of your cause?