Avoiding Hamas just avoids making peace

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Fox News:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would never make peace with Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, a stand that could undermine peace negotiations in the region.

In an interview with FOX News, Netanyahu said Gaza can’t be part of a peace deal while Hamas is in control.

“We can work with the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas,” he said, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “We cannot accept Hamas as a negotiating partner.”

“I categorically say you can’t make peace with somebody who wants to destroy you, and Hamas wants to destroy us,” he said. “What would we negotiate with them about? The method of our destruction?”

Gideon Levy in Haaretz on the insanity of this position:

Obama needs to turn things upside-down and break with convention. That’s why he was elected. Two decisive steps would change things completely: an American effort to introduce Hamas into the negotiations and pressure on Israel to end the matter of the occupation. Simplistic? Perhaps, but the complex and gradual solutions haven’t gotten us anywhere up to now. Like it or not, without Hamas peace is not possible. The fact that Obama has put his trust only in Abbas’ Fatah has guaranteed failure, which was foreseeable. History has taught us that you make peace with your worst enemy, not with those who are seen as collaborators by their own people.

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