How To Stop Hamas Rockets

The July 29, 2008 Rand report found that most terrorist groups end by means other than military force, such as by joining the political process. For instance, the Catholic terrorist group IRA, which had sworn to eliminate wee Northern Ireland (majority Protestant) by incorporating it into the much larger Irish Republic (almost all Catholic), was brought into the political process. Through diplomacy the situation was resolved, and there is finally peace in Northern Ireland.

Hamas has also tried to join the political process and won the internationally sanctioned 2006 elections in Palestine. As President Jimmy Carter wrote in The New York Times 4/28/08, Hamas "gained a reputation for effective and honest administration" and "proposed a unity government with Fatah."

Unfortunately, the Israel Lobby/neocon-dominated Bush administration's no talk policy meant no diplomacy for Palestine. After heavily financing Fatah in the elections, we then heavily armed them so as to bring about a civil war. (Note: fomenting civil wars among Muslims has been a longstanding Israeli strategy, as expressed by Oded Yinon in 1982.)

Promoting a Fatah/Hamas civil war successfully resulted in the isolation of Hamas in the prison called Gaza where Israeli assassination squads could continue murdering Hamas leaders not only in Gaza but in the West Bank as well.

As President Jimmy Carter pointed out (The New York Times 4/28/08), Hamas had agreed to accept any peace agreement negotiated by Israel and Fatah's President Abbas as long as it was approved by the Palestinian people in a referendum. (Note: Speaking at Columbia University, Iran's president Ahmadinejad said Iran would also respect such a peace deal.)

Hamas does not recognize the current Israeli regime but then neither do numerous Arab/Muslim states. Under the Arab League Peace Plan, these countries have pledged to finally recognize Israel when Israel complies with UN resolutions and ends its illegal occupations.

As Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi noted in The New York Times 1/08/09, the June cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was supposed to mean that both the starvation blockade of Gaza and the Israeli assassinations ended. They did not. In November, six Hamas members were killed, and the cease-fire broke down.

Israel's mass murder of civilians in Gaza is serving to increase world-wide anti-Semitism and anti-American terrorism. The only way to stop these rockets is through a comprehensive fair and just peace settlement such as the Arab League Peace Plan.