How can anyone be expected to negotiate with an enemy who insists that making concessions is not realistic?

Here is the Hamas's "realistic" "peace" plan, from the same interview:

"Hamas is realistic. It says to the international community: You talk about the 1967 borders - by all means, make Israel declare that it will withdraw from all the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, that it will accept the right of the refugees and the displaced to return to their lands and property,

So Mashal thinks it is realistic to expect Israel to dissolve itself by absorbing an Arab majority. That is his "peace."

At minimum, Palestinians should be alarmed by the fact that Hamas has refused time and again to agree to the simple and obvious coalition conditions of Mahmoud Abbas that must be the basis of any responsible government:

...to recognize past agreements with Israel, UN resolutions and Arab summit rulings.

Surely, that is the minimum. It doesn't even mention abrogating the racist and outrageous Hamas Charter. That is fundamental to assumption of national responsibility. It is what the Palestinians need for themselves.

The peace process reached an impasse because both sides could not make the concessions needed for peace. Palestinian leaders could not formally give up right of return. Israelis could not give up sovereignty of the Temple Mount. However, after the futility and destruction of the Intifada, it appeared that a way forward had been found. Until the rise of the Hamas, there was hope for a "live and let live" pragmatic arrangement: Israel would withdraw from most of the West Bank. The Palestinians would form a de facto state and cease terror activities. Both sides would get on with their lives. This is the scenario that Rami Khouri conjures up in the Daily Star. Khouri forgot or didn't read that the Hamas has no intention of becoming a responsible political movement. This is Mashal again in that same interview:

"...the demand to disarm and the demand to turn Hamas and the rest of the resistance forces into political parties is an unrealistic demand, because it has nothing to do with the Palestinian reality."

Mashal proposes a government of armed gangs, that insists that it will not even make a truce until Israel agrees to self-destruct. This is not a basis for coexistence.

Khouri, and other Palestinians, want to make believe that nothing happened when Hamas was elected, or that Hamas policies will depend on Israel only. This is alarming, because real change in the Hamas and Palestine can come only if the Palestinians want that change.

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by Moderator @ 12:46 PM CST [Link]