The Gaza Two Step

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=43382C1BA69209F248F31B8AE23709DC.w5?a=145481&f=19

I applaud todays article on the growing crisis in Israel and the occupied territories for trying to take a strategic look at the problem rather than just rehashing the same tied rhetoric. The analysis for the most part is great and it is definitely worth a read.

My main comment is that the lack of good options isn'tjust because we do not talk to hamas (which no matter how many times we call them terrorists is still a party that was elected to lead Palestine in free elections). It is because we continue to willfully pretend we do not know how negotiations work.

Hamas has clearly signaled over the years they are willing to live peacefully along side Israel. They have never engaged in anything more than small scale attacks aimed at maximizing public fear. They have repeatedly offered to negotiate cease fires the past two years. And, they have never crossed any of the clear bright lines that would trigger an all out regional war (which is the only way they could hope to affect Israels destruction).

But those positions are all part of a negotiating stance. The main Palestinian complaint about the PLO was that they basically traded those positions away for what has amounted to almost nothing given the subsequent collapse of the Oslo process. To think hamas is going to just hand Israel the important legitimacy that would flow from recognition and the huge advantage Israel would gain from taking away the one tactic the Palestinians have - violence - just for the chance to negotiate again is naïve. Or else rather insidious.

The reality is that for reasons beyond my understanding the US has no interest in fostering a settlement. And that is too bad because every day the Israelis wait weakens their bargaining position, not the Palestinians.