January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

LONDON: A so-called expert was asked on the BBC’s Arabic service last week what he thought Hamas should do now it is likely to be the government in the Palestinian territories. Hamas would have to change, he said, because the Palestinian people would want a government that recognizes Israel, is willing to resume peace negotiations and will be acceptable to the United States.

If this is truly what the Palestinian people want they might as well have settled for Fatah and not elected Hamas. They gave Hamas their trust precisely because it is not what the expert was suggesting: it does not recognize the state of Israel, is not willing to pursue a humiliating peace and is more interested in being accepted by the Palestinians than by the US or anyone else.

The fact that Hamas does not, and will not, recognize the legitimacy of the state of Israel does not mean that Hamas is not capable of negotiating a peace deal that would end the bloodshed. Hamas is prepared to negotiate a settlement based on the concept of a hudnah (truce). As far as Hamas is concerned Israel has been built on land stolen from the Palestinian people. The creation of the state was a solution to a European problem and the Palestinians are under no obligation to be the scapegoats for Europe’s failure to recognize the Jews as human beings entitled to inalienable rights.

Contrary to the claims of alarmists who see the Hamas election victory as a threat to peace, new opportunities for making peace could now emerge. The peacemaking episodes of the past were based on assumptions absolutely unacceptable to the majority of Palestinians and those who support the justice of their cause. From Oslo to the road map it was always assumed that Israel was the victim that needed to live in peace and security and that the key to this was the end of Palestinian terrorism. The new peace process that Hamas may indeed be willing to be part of should be based on the fact that the Palestinians are the victims and have been victims since Israel was created on their soil. It is not Palestinian terrorism that is the problem, but Israeli aggression.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service

—Azzam Tamimi is director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought; his book on Hamas will be published this summer