HAMAS WILL NOT RECOGNIZE ISRAEL
by George Jonas
Benador Associates
March 22, 2006

"We are asked to recognize Israel. We can do so but we will not," announced
Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal on Monday. He spoke in response to
requests by the international community, including some Arab leaders, to
negotiate with the Jewish state.

But Meshaal said no to Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the crown prince
of Bahrain, and no to Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, and no
to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and no to the European
Community, all of whom would like Hamas to a.) recognize Israel, b.)
renounce its "armed struggle," i.e. terrorism, and c.) respect agreements
with the Jewish state. But as of Monday, Meshaal was of the view that, on
the contrary, the world should utilize the unexpected Hamas win in the
Palestinian elections "for Arab and Islamic benefits."

"Do you need anyone to exert pressure? Let Hamas be your pressuring arm,"
Meshaal was quoted as saying.

Now all this was predictable, and it would be hardly worth mentioning if it
weren't for commentators ­ and not just commentators but political leaders
­ asserting periodically that the Middle East impasse is due to Israeli
intransigence ­ or worse, to "personalities."

Four years ago, for instance, the media took it in its collective head that
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was nothing but a grudge-match between two
old man, Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon.

Even some of the Israeli press bought into this hogwash back in 2002.
"Twenty years after Arafat and Sharon faced off during the siege of West
Beirut, the two old men are confronting each other once again," offered
Ehud Ya'ari in THE JERUSALEM REPORT MAGAZINE. U.S. President George W. Bush
himself seems to have had an idea that ­ as THE GUARDIAN's Robin Lustig put
it at the time ­ "This is the OK Corral. Two old men are facing each other
down. It's personal, and it goes back a long way."

As sheriff, Bush dispatched his then-deputy, Secretary of State Colin
Powell, to the OK Corral four years ago ­ that is, to Arafat's besieged
compound at Ramallah ­ with instructions to disarm the two cowboys. Bush
implied that much as Israel was being wronged by terrorists, the world
community couldn't let its leader, Sharon, take the law into his own
hands.

On April 4, 2002, in his Rose Garden speech announcing Powell's mission,
the president waxed lyrical about giving peace a chance:

"America itself counts former adversaries as trusted friends ­ Germany and
Japan and now Russia," he said. "Conflict is not inevitable. Distrust need
not be permanent. Peace is possible when we break free of old patterns and
habits of hatred."

What Bush failed to mention was that Germany had been flattened and
de-Nazified before it became America's trusted friend; imperial Japan had
been nuked, and Soviet Russia had imploded. The friendship of these nations
was preceded by a complete collapse and fundamental restructuring of their
respective societies.

One wishes the Mideast conflict were just a grudge match between two old
men. If it were, it would be over. Arafat is dead and buried, and Sharon is
dead without being buried after a massive stroke left him in a coma. If it
had been their private war, or anything close to it, now there would be
peace.

Unfortunately, the Mideast conflict has never been a grudge-match between
individuals. It has been a war between the Jewish state and those who have
been rejecting it for the past 58 years, which is most of the Arab/Muslim
world. Despite Bush's uplifting speech, Powell probably didn't go to
Ramallah in 2002 as Neville Chamberlain went to Munich in 1938, with the
lofty hope for "peace in our time." Powell was hoping only for a permit
from the Arab world to wage his own war in peace. He wanted to finish a job
in Iraq he left unfinished a decade ago.

No doubt, Powell and Bush were aware that before adversaries become trusted
friends they need to be defeated ­ perhaps not "flattened" or "nuked" (one
hopes) but decisively defeated ­ and that Iraq couldn't be America's friend
without a complete makeover following a victorious war. If then. If at
all.

The same is true of Israel and its enemies ­ except one war wouldn't be
enough. Israel had already fought four (or five, or six, counting Lebanon
and the Intifadas.) Peace is no giveaway. It doesn't come in a cereal box.
It's usually a dividend of victory ­ or defeat. That's why it's the dearest
thing there is.

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