I'm relatively hard line in support of Israel (at least compared to other liberals). Although I would have supported the proposal at the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David of July 2000 which would have given the Palestinians all of the Gaza strip and 95% of the West Bank.
I've generally had a very poor opinion of Hamas (and still do), but I think it might be a good idea to legitimize their government. Do I think they will renounce violence once they are given real political power? I hope so, but I doubt it. However, if they continue their attacks on Israel they will no longer be perceived by much of the world as being on the moral high ground. Rocket attacks will no longer be mere political protests against an oppressive regime. Instead, they will be an act of war by one sovereign nation against another.
Hamas will then be seen as a Taliban state if they do not renounce violence and recognize Israel in working towards a lasting peace agreement. Marty Peretz writes:
A cease-fire can sometimes be had between civilized governments. But why isn't anyone pressing the United States and its allies in Afghanistan into a cease-fire with the Taliban? A stupid question. Because the enemy is the Taliban, and the Taliban could as easily convert to Christianity as agree to an armistice with its opponents. Maybe they'd agree to what the Arabs call a hudna, a pause, a lull, but only on tactical grounds.
The fact is that Hamas is a Taliban state, as one Israeli diplomat put it. This is almost an epiphany, a clarifying truth. Hamas operates against its Palestinian enemies like the Taliban does against its Afghani enemies. Imagine a Hamas squad enters a kindergarten in a kibbutz. Neither the Taliban nor Hamas strive for earthly aims. Armed with instruments of death, they each fight for a heavenly design. But on earth. Yes, what a heaven that would be. Death is their own blessed comrade. Go ahead, establish a cease-fire with one of them. America before Israel.
The Taliban is not an analogy to Hamas. It is identical, equivalent. A cease-fire with Hamas is a delusion. Engage with whom?
Israel has shown more than enough restraint through years of provocation. Or, as my friend Bret Stephens has written, "No ingenious conceit can disguise the fact war offers no outcome other than victory or defeat. This is one big thing that Hamas understands." Let us hope that Israel grasps this, too. And the new administration, as well.