Hamas: Better the Devil You Know....

"We need to warn against any attempt to bring about the collapse of the Hamas government," says former Israeli minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

Ben-Ami, who served as minister for public security and later for foreign affairs, played a key negotiating role during the Middle East peace summit at Camp David in July 2000. Those talks were conducted between former U.S president Bill Clinton, former chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak."

Surprising words, perhaps, especially who is saying them.

And this:

"If you bring down Hamas, you would push it to a more radical position," he said. "You may also effect a fragmentation within it. So far, Hamas is a unified movement, which is good for everybody. With Hamas in power you have one single counterpart you can talk to. If they reach an agreement, everybody will listen to them." Moreover, he said, "the military wing of Hamas is still listening to the political leadership."

Read the full article, initially on Inter Press Service, but now on truthout, here.

Meanwhile this, as reported in today's NYT:

"Imprisoned members of the Fatah and Hamas factions have drafted a joint platform that calls for a Palestinian state within the 1967 boundaries alongside Israel, according to the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who supported the idea, saying: "I adopt the position of those heroes."

Read the full NYT article here. A possible change of thought and direction?

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