The leader of Hamas, a group regarded by most of the world as a terrorist organization, yesterday called for the United States to play a more active role in the Middle East peace process. What blatant hypocrisy! To say that they want more US participation in order to reach a peace deal while they reaffirm, in the same breath, their continued dedication to armed struggle against Israel is simply shameless. By armed struggle, Hamas refers to attacking Israelis, civilian and military, through gunfire, bombs, rocket attacks, or any other means. Instead of asking the United States to be more active in the peace process, Hamas should be less active in the terrorism process.

Hamas even refuses to recognize the right of Israel to merely exist, so what would they consider to be the “solution” to the Israel problem? Mass deportation or exodus of the Israeli population? Extermination of the Israeli population? Or will they be willing to live side by side with the Jewish people? If modern history is any indication, the prospects of a Hamas willing to live side by side in peace with the Jewish people are slim to none… especially considering that every time they launch a rocket into Israel, they consciously accept the fact that they might kill children. In other words, Hamas seems to lack conscience. I am not saying that Israel does not deserve some blame for the situation, as well as some members of the international community, but the truth of the matter is that if Hamas completely renounced violence and stopped terrorist attacks on Israel, then the international pressure on Israel to find a political solution to Palestinian demands for statehood would be so great that they would be forced to grant Palestinians their independence. If I am wrong, then the only thing we temporarily “sacrifice” is more war, a war that Hamas can simply pick up later if they so desire. If I am right, then both the Palestinians and the Israelis will get peace, even if only for a little while. Doesn’t saving a few lives make a ceasefire worth it? Sadly, history has proven that trying to reason with terrorists tends to be fruitless… and so the bloodshed continues…

-AG