Hamas

An excess of emotion appears to dominate recent discussion of the Israeli blockade of Hamas. Actually, Israel lives in peace with both Jordan and Egypt. There is no active belligerence with any of its other sovereign neighbors. Both portions of the future state of Palestine were parts of other sovereign countries. The West Bank was Jordanian; Gaza was part of Egypt. The recognized administration of Palestine is the Palestinian Authority (PA). This is basically a descendant of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The Sun editorial "Mr. Abbas' mission" (Feb. 13) is a triumph of wishful thinking over analysis. Its self-contradictions and omissions include: •Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "would have to exercise the kind of statesmanship that has been sadly lacking among the Palestinians for generations" to lead a unity government of his Fatah movement and the terrorist Hamas to peace with Israel. "It's too early to say" if he could. It's hardly too early to say the 74-year-old Mr. Abbas can't and won't.

In her op-ed, Laila El-Haddad ("Palestinians betrayed by Judge Goldstone," April 18) displays the mind-set of someone who believes that the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, is blameless in its purposeful attacks on Israeli civilians. While Judge Goldstone recently noted "that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy by Israel," he cannot say the same for Hamas. He states, "That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

Signs of movement toward renewed cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have Israeli officials on edge. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization committed to its destruction and has shunned negotiations. In the wake of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts last fall to sidestep negotiations with Israel and seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state, it is easy to see this as another ominous sign for the prospects for peace. But there is another possibility at work.

The Sun editorial "Mr. Abbas' mission" (Feb. 13) is a triumph of wishful thinking over analysis. Its self-contradictions and omissions include: •Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "would have to exercise the kind of statesmanship that has been sadly lacking among the Palestinians for generations" to lead a unity government of his Fatah movement and the terrorist Hamas to peace with Israel. "It's too early to say" if he could. It's hardly too early to say the 74-year-old Mr. Abbas can't and won't.

Amid all the falsehoods and distortions in Laila El Haddad's diatribe against Israel lies a great truth: the situation in Gaza is tragic. It is tragic that after Israel acceded to international demands to "end the occupation" and forcibly evacuated thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza, the people of Gaza decided not to use the infrastructure abandoned by the Israelis and the billions of dollars of foreign aid poured into the region as...

The Hamas government in Gaza backtracked Saturday on its apology earlier in the week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks. The apology had signaled a rare deviation from Hamas' violent ideology, and the subsequent zigzag reflects the Islamic militants' conflicting objectives. Hamas, which seized Gaza by force in 2007, is trying to reach out to the West in hopes of winning recognition and getting Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. However, Hamas is also reluctant to discard its violent ideology for fear of losing credibility at home.

A Hamas military commander slain in a Dubai hotel room played a key role in smuggling anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons into the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Hamas officials said Sunday. But they disagreed on whether Mahmoud Mabhuh's death would deliver a blow to Palestinian armed groups in the seaside enclave or inspire them to redouble their arms campaign. "This guy was a middleman for smuggling weapons from Iran, not only to Gaza but to Hezbollah" in Lebanon, said an Israeli military official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issues involved.

The pundits were wrong; so, too, the exit polls. Palestinians threw out the ruling bums and put the Islamic militant group Hamas in charge of their collective life. Their overwhelming rejection of the Palestinian leadership's decade-old hold on power changes the political landscape in the Middle East, leaving Israel, the United States and their European allies to confront a new government led by a known terrorist group. The upset over Fatah, the faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the late Yasser Arafat, gave the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, a clear majority in the 132-seat parliament and control of a new government.

The terrorist organization Hamas may in time manage to carry out the reprisals against Israel it has threatened, but it has been dealt severe blows. Israel's progress against the extremist opponent to the PLO-Israel accord owes something to improved cooperation from outside sources that were previously less forthcoming, notably the PLO and the United States.After two suicide bus bombings took 12 lives, Israel broke up the ring that was responsible, captured its two leaders and some 30 others and killed two terrorists in a shootout.

The gaunt appearance of Israeli army Sgt. Gilad Shalit after five years illegal detention in Gaza without a single visit by the Red Cross or other international humanitarian organization threw into sharp contrast the full faces and healthy physiques of the Palestinian murderers released from Israeli prisons in exchange for his freedom. To see and hear the recently released terrorists and their supporters in Ramallah and Gaza vow to commit more kidnappings, murder and violence certainly should make us understand that the price of Mr. Shalit's freedom was very steep indeed.

Both Israel and Hamas are claiming victory in the prisoner swap that will free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by militants five years ago and held captive ever since. But don't mistake that for anything that might advance the peace process. If anything it may foretell more violence. This deal, in which about half the Palestinians and Mr. Shalit were released Tuesday, wasn't conceived as a confidence-building move that was part of some larger, strategic vision to coax the two sides toward reconciliation.

Your editorial bemoaning reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as complicating, if not dooming, the Mideast peace process misses a key point ("Best of enemies," April 30): Hamas is a virulently anti-Semitic organization that hates Israel and America. The most recent evidence of Hamas' twisted world view was this week's announcement by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in which he called Osama bin Laden an "Arab holy warrior" and condemned his killing by U.S. forces as "a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.

Consider these two comments if you want to know who is our ally and who is our enemy. Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip and regularly fires rockets into neighboring Israel, has condemned the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden and said it "mourned him as an Arab holy warrior," according to news reports. "We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," said Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas in Gaza. By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the U.S. operation a "resounding victory for justice, freedom and the values shared by all democratic countries fighting shoulder to shoulder against terror.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict underwent another evolution this week when the Fatah-backed Palestinian National Authority, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, the radical Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, announced they would put aside their differences to make common cause for an independent Palestinian state. Whether the two groups can really end years of mutual enmity and distrust remains to be seen, but the mere fact that they are talking about cooperating again could spell trouble for U.S. diplomacy in the region.

Commentary writer Laila El-Haddad feels "betrayed" by Judge Richard Goldstone's repudiation of the central allegation of the U.N.'s Goldstone commission investigation. Turns out the Israelis, as they said all along, did not intentionally target Palestinian civilians during the anti-terrorist Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. El-Haddad quotes her father, from Gaza City, saying Israeli forces "destroyed everything living and beautiful and ordinary," and cites the displacement of "more than 50,000 people" to prove it. The population of the Gaza Strip is about 1.4 million.

The West's isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government better have an end game. Decisions by the U.S. and the European Union to cancel or redirect millions in aid to strictly humanitarian causes are expected to leave the near-destitute Palestinian Authority with even less means to govern. The West wants the Islamists in charge to renounce their anti-Israel platform and support of terrorism. A negotiated settlement of this decades-long conflict must begin with a recognition of Israel's right to exist.

The Islamic militant group Hamas brutally put down a rally by thousands of Gazans who turned out this week to mark the third anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The demonstration was a tribute to Mr. Arafat, but more important, it was also a show of support for his Fatah faction and a strong sign of Gazans' growing antipathy toward Hamas. In Gaza, though, Hamas gunmen rule, and they may well become the uninvited spoilers of the peace summit planned for Annapolis.

In her op-ed, Laila El-Haddad ("Palestinians betrayed by Judge Goldstone," April 18) displays the mind-set of someone who believes that the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, is blameless in its purposeful attacks on Israeli civilians. While Judge Goldstone recently noted "that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy by Israel," he cannot say the same for Hamas. He states, "That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

This is it. I've had it. I am outraged. What chutzpah! The article in The Baltimore Sun ("Israeli leader's 'makeup visit'," July 6) stated in a headline: "Obama expected to urge Netanyahu to issue apology for raid." I couldn't believe what I was reading. An apology, just to have a picture taken together? There is nothing for Mr. Netanyahu to apologize for--unless Mr. Obama thinks that violating blockades during wartime is okay, or allowing in people who call themselves "humanitarian or peace activists" who were linked to and/or are supporters of Hamas, Syria and Al Qaeda or were mercenaries paid to provoke the Israeli soldiers who attempted to inspect the cargo and/or identify the people on board to see if they were smuggling weapons or terrorists.