The Hamas Victory

Submitted by Yale Zussman (United States), Jan 27, 2006 at 18:35

Whether Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections proves to be a disaster for the West depends to a great extent on what the West does now. To date, we have given the Palestinian people a free ride in their war against the Jews.

With Hamas forming a government, the Western powers may finally understand that the reason the Middle East conflict has gone on so long is that they have failed to hold the Palestinians accountable for the actions of their people. Nothing they have done has been deemed sufficiently aweful or offensive to justify any cost that might be imposed on them, whether it be a retaliatory strike by Israel or loss of territory. Since the prospect of these costs is what keeps the peace, it follows rather directly that failing to threaten them invites the kind of war we have seen for the last sixty-plus years.

Perhaps the key to bringing Hamas around is to announce that future terrorist attacks will result in Western acknowledgement of territorial transfers from Palestine to Israel.

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