Archive for the ‘fatah’ tag
Hamas and Violence #
The complexities of the Israel-Fatah-Hamas are often lost on me. But this I was heartened by:
However, Hamas is now attempting to sell the virtues of a ceasefire to a battered people accustomed to talk of “steadfastness” and “resistance”. A group of leading thinkers is to visit universities and hold symposia to convince Gazans that a period of calm will help lift the siege and rebuild their disappearing economy.
Though that hardly means that a resolution is suddenly within sight, I can’t see this as a bad thing.
Should the world talk to Hamas? #
The CS Monitor asks a question that should be answered quickly (and affirmatively).
The hand-wringing over talking to Hamas reflects a shift away from the black-and-white diplomatic approach of President Bush’s first term to a more realist and results-oriented tendency in the second. If the US can talk to archenemy Iran to get something it wants in Iraq, the reasoning goes, then why not explore what might be gained from someone sitting down with Hamas?