In the wake of the recent elections that installed Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist group, at the head of the Palestinian legislature, there is a power struggle emerging. Over the past few weeks we have seen bombings and gun battles between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah resulting in widespread violence and a number of deaths.
The recent violence is a clear manifestation of the ideological battle between moderate and fanatical Islam that is so often discussed. On the one side we have Fatah, a fairly moderate party, which is effectively embodied by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This party is primarily secular, in the liberal republican sense of our own country, and believes that religion must be protected but not imposed. It respects the religion of Islam without using irrational interpretations to justify violence. Hamas, on the other hand, interprets their religion to mandate Islamic control over not only Israel, but also areas of Spain, Yugoslavia and parts of Europe, and will use terrorism to enforce these results.
The Palestinians are in a position to choose from these two very different directions. They can choose the path of Hamas and other Arab countries and move backwards with the same Arafat-like tactics that have only brought the Palestinian people social and economic misery. Or they can adopt the mindset of Fatah and the West, and with pragmatism and good intent, work for all the benefits of peace.
After recent Israeli actions and statements indicating their determination to pursue a state of peace and security that is both final and lasting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is attempting to build unified support for the peace option; the kind of cooperative peace that Israel has long been seeking. It would be wise for the Palestinians and their leadership to opt for this peace. Abbas clearly recognizes the nature of this crossroads and recently demanded that Hamas -- international terrorist group and majority party in the Palestinian legislature -- accept a general framework for a peace plan, which would include not annihilating Israel. Hamas said no.
But the fact remains that Israel, perhaps with input from pro-peace Palestinian leadership like Abbas and Fatah, will create the final borders to ensure democracy, peace and security for Israel. It stands to reason that the Palestinians will get a better outcome if their leadership takes a part in negotiations.
Hamas has tempered its position somewhat, now attempting to implement a phased, rather than an immediate, annihilation of Israel, but they will probably need to be more flexible still. The path Hamas is choosing to take -- terrorism and non-negotiation -- kills Israelis in the short term but hurts Palestinians even more in the long run. The longer that Hamas perpetuates violence, the less favorable the eventual settlement will be for the Palestinians. In the democratic context, terrorism and all its manifestations will be punished, not rewarded.
Many people talk about going back to the borders that existed before 1948 or 1967 -- years when two of the many wars fought by Arab countries and Palestinians to destroy Israel occurred. But it would be irrational to think that a Palestinian state could be formed based on any borders pre-2006. This would ignore the decades of brutal terrorism, murders, bombings and destruction in which Palestinian groups have engaged, and the thousands of innocent lives they have taken.
To draw an analogy to the war on terror that the United States is fighting, this would be like giving control of Afghanistan back to bin Laden and his supporters, ignoring Sept. 11, if they pledged not to attack us any longer. The world would be in a poor state if terrorism was ignored (or rewarded) this way.
Abbas has said that if Hamas refused to negotiate, as they have done, he would put forward a framework for peace in a national referendum. If this is done, the Palestinian people will be faced with the same choice, to go forward in peace or backwards in terrorism. The United States, Israel and the rest of the free world are getting fed up with terrorism and will not tolerate it much longer, so they had better choose carefully.
