Engage!

Melanie Phillips writes in the Jerusalem Post about groups in Great Britain that advocate opening communication with Hamas--and

Under cover of this rubric, they often promote not merely engagement with Hamas and other Islamist radicals, but their actual cause itself. There are three such organizations: Conflicts Forum, run by the controversial former MI6 agent Alastair Crooke; Forward Thinking, headed by William Sieghart, principally known as an arts administrator; and Prospects for Peace, run by Daniel Levy, a former adviser to Yossi Beilin.

I don't know--I would have thought that the fact that Hamas attacked and took over Gaza from the democratically elected government and instituted totalitarian rule would have tempered the urge to welcome Hamas into the fold.

Maybe Fatah is seen as such a product of the US that they are being discounted by more than just the Palestinian Arabs.

Or maybe it is something simpler: these groups are not really interested in peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which makes Hamas the more effective recipient for funding.

Read the entire article.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas.