Generalissimo Franco is Still Dead
Excuse the old Saturday Night Live reference, but it is simply isn’t news to find out that Hamas still doesn’t plan to recognize Israel. For another throwback, remember then-Rep. Pete McCloskey coming out of a bunker in Beirut with what purported to be Arafat’s signature under a line written in English saying Yasser accepted UN Resolution 242.
Excuse the old Saturday Night Live reference, but it is simply isn’t news to find out that Hamas still doesn’t plan to recognize Israel. For another throwback, remember then-Rep. Pete McCloskey coming out of a bunker in Beirut with what purported to be Arafat’s signature under a line written in English saying Yasser accepted UN Resolution 242.
Like McCloskey, Jimmy Carter announced a “breakthrough” on behalf of one of Israel’s enemies. He said they said “they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders” and he said they “would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbor in peace” provided the Palestinians could vote on both in a referendum. Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal corrected him on al Jazeera. “We accept a (Palestinian) state on the (1967 lines) with Jerusalem as capital, real sovereignty and full right of return for refugees, but without recognizing Israel.”
It is odd to cite the State Department without comment, but here is State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey: (It is clear that) “nothing has changed in terms of Hamas’ basic views about Israel and about peace in the region… I think if you look back at the history of the rhetoric from Hamas, you see … language about truces and other kinds of issues. But the bottom line is, Hamas still believes in the destruction of the state of Israel … it’s pretty hard to see how Hamas becomes any kind of legitimate partner for Israel or for President Abbas, for that matter.”
So it would seem clear that Carter, like McCloskey, should be the goat. But an astute reader in Texas (we have many astute readers are in Texas) wrote in advance of this report: “When you properly vilify Carter, think of this. Is it more damaging to hug and kiss Hamas or supply it fuel and food to make war against you? (Israel is) the only country I know that supplies fuel and necessary supplies to people who are trying to kill them. Can we blame Carter alone?”
Probably not.
JINSA’s view is that terrorist organizations really do believe what they say they believe and want what they say they want. It is patronizing to think Hamas – or Iran or al Qaeda or Hezbollah, or North Korea for that matter – can be talked or bribed out of positions around which they have coalesced their power.
One reason Hamas is rising in popularity in the West Bank as well as Gaza is Palestinians believe it means what it says, and they do not trust Fatah. We believe it too, and don’t understand what appears to be the Israeli position that if Israel provides food, water, money (it is paying Fatah and Fatah is transferring money to Hamas to pay salaries in Gaza) to the Palestinians while Hamas is in control, running the propaganda machine and importing ever-more sophisticated weapons, Hamas will somehow stop being in control and Palestinians who do not desire the destruction of Israel will come to power.
Carter is the goat; he advanced the standing of Hamas and lied about it afterward. But Hamas is truly unacceptable and unlikely to be changed by bribery, cajolery or threat. Generalissimo Franco is still dead. So what good is it for Israel to absorb terrible blows (a four-year-old boy was injured yesterday in Sderot) while waiting for the news to change?