Negotiating with Hamas

[VDB]

True story:

Recently, I found myself in a cab driven by a self-identified Palestinian born in Jerusalem. Although I did my best to steer our discussion to Arabian and North African music - even playing some from my iphone to his great delight - the driver insisted on giving me his views on Gaza and Israel. "We are now all Hamas," he exclaimed to me over and again. "They kill our children, we kill their children," he went on, "and I don't care who you are." Realizing we were close to my destination - and, perhaps resorting to my Midwest upbringing - I searched for something to say that would allow some closure and "peace-building" - even in a cab with a man who had just called for the purposeful murder of children. "Well, we are praying for peace," I said to him earnestly and from his back seat, as I wondered if I should tip a man who had just called for the murder of children. As I reclaimed my luggage from his trunk, his words: "Peace?! We do not want peace! Now we are all terrorists!"

Should I have reported this conversation to the police or even the FBI? After all, this man had just proclaimed himself a terrorist - explicitly and in a boasting manner - and he drove a cab to and from and within an international airport every day. My question is sincere. I am still wondering.

Then, this evening, I came across this video of a Hamas rally and a conflict between Hamas and Fatah in Minnesota (Minnesota, for crying out loud). Watch this and tell me how you think the government of Israel should "negotiate" with Hamas - a terrorist organization that calls in its charter for the killing of Jews (read it if you do not believe me, few people have read it, just Google it - it's available) and for the avoidance of treaties and negotiations. Watch this video. What are your thoughts? Seriously, and please be specific. How can and should one "negotiate" with this group?

[Marc Peterson]

Hamas has tortured and murdered more Palestinians than Israel has. Why are we pretending otherwise? In case some here think I always toe some republican line, I think Ms. Rice is, in no small part, to blame for much of this conflict. She was told by Fatah (no angels by any stretch, but at least secular) that Hamas should not be allowed to be included in the election. "The people don't trust us (I wonder why?) and they might elect Hamas out of anger" she was told. But no, they had to be included and now the Palestinians are reaping the whirlwind.

[VDB]

On reaping the whirlwind, I am haunted by the parting exclamation by my Palestinian cabdriver, "We do not want peace!"

[Marc Peterson]

More evidence from a leftist group that Hamas (even though they are God's children and even though may someday find God) is a terrorist group and should never be negotiated with.

[Micah Schuurman]

I was not there, but I think that the man was using irony when he said that he was a terrorist.
Irony is a wonderful tool when unmasking the sort of demonization that takes place in the hearts and minds of opressors.