Dean's World -

That's basically what the former Chief of Mossad, Efraim Halevy, says Israel has to do. Some highlights:

MJ: Should Hamas be required to recognize Israel's right to exist before Israel would talk with it?

EH: Israel has been successful in inflicting very serious losses upon Hamas in both Gaza and the West Bank and this has certainly had an effect on Hamas, who are now trying to get a "cease fire." But this has not cowed them into submission and into accepting the three-point diktat that the international community has presented to them: to recognize Israel's right to exist; to honor all previous commitments of the Palestinian Authority; and to prevent all acts of violence against Israel and Israelis. The last two conditions are, without doubt, sine qua non. The first demands an a priori renunciation of ideology before contact is made. Such a demand has never been made before either to an Arab state or to the Palestinian Liberation Organization/Fatah. There is logic in the Hamas' position that ideological "conversion" is the endgame and not the first move in a negotiation.

MJ: Again and again, Israel and Washington too have tried to engineer which Palestinians would come to power, to whom they would speak or recognize, etc. Is this itself problematic? Should the West step back from trying to manipulate internal Palestinian politics?

EH: Yes, for two reasons. First, is the sovereign right of Palestinians to decide who their leadership should be. I think that is the basis of democracy. More than that, it is the best possible way in my opinion for a country or society to determine how it wants to be governed and how it wants to be lead. And second, so far it must be admitted that attempts to do this [manipulate internal Palestinian politics] have not succeeded. After all, in the final analysis, it would not be possible to create and fashion a leadership from without.

Of course this will piss off the insane, rightwing nutcase settler fringebats who think nothing of dragging their children into warzones, who pretend at self-reliance while being heavily subsidized at the ordinary Israeli taxpayers' expense, and who are ready and willing to attack other Jews.

However, why should the lunatic settler fringe deserve a veto over the peace process? They have an invested stake in the status quo. Just like the scum Palestinian terrorists who target children on school buses or civilians at Sbarro, they need the conflict to continue to justify their agenda. The ordinary folk of Israel and palestine want peace, but they are all held hostage.