Can ignoring Hamas lead to Israeli-Palestinian peace?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

By Dan Murphy, Staff Writer / September 16, 2010
Boston

George Mitchell, President Obama's Middle East peace envoy, rarely misses an opportunity to mention the crucial role he played in helping bring peace to Northern Ireland.

As he makes the rounds in Washington, Jerusalem, and Damascus, trying to shepherd Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he speaks of the skepticism that plagued the talks in Belfast that ended in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. His point? That Northern Ireland proves that a comprehensive peace deal can be worked out between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas within the next two years, which is Obama's timeline for the peace effort.

But there's a crucial missing element that will undoubtedly trouble the Israeli-Palestinian talks as they move ahead. Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, is not at the table. Asked recently if the US would reach out to Hamas, Mr. Mitchell flatly said "no."

A blast of mortar fire from Gaza on Wednesday – and Israeli retaliation Thursday – served as a raucous reminder that Hamas isn't going to stand idle as the talks proceed.

"Whether you like or hate Hamas, they’re there, they're significant, and you can’t ignore them," says Ali Abunimah, author of "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse" and a founder of the Electronic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian website.

"Palestinian's don’t get to choose who the Israeli leaders are. And if they did, I wouldn’t choose the current array of Israeli leaders. I'm not saying that Hamas represents all Palestinians, but it does represent a significant proportion and it’s simply unrealistic to pretend they don’t exist, or worse, try to destroy them," he says.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0916/Can-ignoring-Hamas-lead-to-Israeli-Palestinian-peace?sms_ss=facebook

[Name removed]

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[Ken Burch]

2. Well, no.

The only way peace was achieved in Northern Ireland was the inclusion of all parties in negotiations AND power-sharing with Sinn Fein, the political allies of the IRA.

If Hamas is excluded, the war goes on forever, because there's no way to military crush them without inflicting such a massive number of casualties that a massive backlash and the rise of more extreme forces would be inevitable. "Victory" as the world used to know it, isn't a possibility for either side in this.