hamas won the election now we have to find ways to communicate

Submitted by richard E (United Kingdom), Jan 30, 2006 at 14:55

Dear Sir
I really think that you got it wrong. They made a democratic choice . We do not agree with it but we have to talk to them. The IRA had the Sinn Fein the Israelis had the Stern gang and other iffy groups( to say the least ) ended with leaders that strove for peace.
We have to talk to them and say to them openly, you want funds, you want support. OK but you have to comply with certain things.
Acceptance of Israel, crack down on all forms of terrorism and for this, you are given the world,funds,advice, acceptance.

If they then say no we have not acted in an undemocratic way. We cannot justifiably say you did not vote the way we wanted so we will take our ball away. democracy doesnt work like that. We would be making a sham of all our calls for democracy. Give them a chance loudly in front of the press not behind closed doors where they can't deny it and twist it.
If you want support from the west , you want them to extend the hand of friendship, hold out yours, not the knife and gun.
s

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".