Former Mossad chief urges Israeli talks with Hamas

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel should hold talks with Hamas since no peace agreement with the Palestinians is viable without the inclusion of the violent Islamic group, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said Tuesday.

The former spy chief`s opinion clashes with the government`s long-standing position of shunning Hamas for its refusal to recognize Israel or renounce violence.

But Halevy said that any peace accord reached with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas without Hamas was likely to be ineffective and `remain on the shelf` since the Fatah leader was both weak and lacked authority.

`It is difficult to believe that it is possible to reach an understanding with the Palestinians without Hamas being part of the solution,` Halevy said in an address to the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel board of governors meeting in Jerusalem.

Halevy suggested that Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings over the last seven years and whose charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, was beginning to show some signs of change, although he cautioned that they were insufficient to date."

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[shira]

1. too true

No peace is possible without Hamas cooperation. The same can be said of Israel. After all, it was Likud's Menachem Begin who made peace with Sadat of Egypt. Peace has more of a chance when it is negotiated between the extreme sides of both governments.

[Vegasaurus]

2. It is certainly true that no peace with Abbas will hold without Hamas

but since Fatah and Hamas cannot even agree on anything, how do they ever expect to agree on Israel?

They can't even find unity amongst themselves.

That has to be first.

Israel cannot be responsible for bringing unity to the Palestinians, who have to want their own state more than they want to annihilate another.

At the moment, that isn't the case.