Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
Hamas and Hezbollah don't want peace. Hamas and Hezbollah, are both militant/military/political groupings dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the extermination of all Jews in the Middle East. They are racists and extremists, and no different from the Taliban, AQ or the Iraqi insurgents.
I mostly agree with that.

What do you suggest as the basis for negotiation. Israel can only strive for their suppression or destruction, by continued existence.
Here is where you and Israel go wrong. That strategy is obviously failing. My main point is that you should not keeping beating your head against that wall and expect a different result. Hamas and Hezbollah are where they are today in no small measure because of Israeli action. Israel might keep them weak militarily with this policy, but it comes at the expense of strengthening them politically. This is a strategy that certainly brings short-term rewards but at the cost of long-term risk and danger. Take Hezbollah, for example. Hezbollah, like it or not, is a legitimate political force in Lebanon. It has a real political constituency. There can be no political solution in Lebanon without Hezbollah. Israeli actions helped create and nurture this. How has Israel benefited? Israel now finds itself in a position where it has few options for dealing with Hezbollah. The same thing is going to happen with Hamas.

Why has the election of Hamas got any bearing on their legitimacy? As all Israelis school children will tell you, Hitler died democratically elected by 19 million Germans. Elections in Gaza are nothing like Elections in Rhode Islands. If you don't believe me, look what happened after the election.
Hamas is not Hitler. The intent may be the same but the capability is much different. In fact, I would suggest that the fatal flaw in Israeli strategic thinking is the apparent inability to distinguish between intent and capability.

My point on the Hamas election was that it represented an opportunity to set them up for failure and delegitimize them in the eyes of the population. Israel's actions did the opposite. At the rate you are going, Hamas is going to be another Hezbollah before too long. Moderate Palestinians, with whom a deal might be struck, have little legitimacy anymore. How exactly does that benefit Israel?