Soccer Dad

When you say "implacable foe," are you referring to Hamas or Israel? They both reject the other's right to exist and refuse to recognize the other's legitimacy. They both support killing innocent civilians and institutionalized racial/religious discrimination. They are both religious fundamentalis groups who believe it is righteous and good to kill in the name of their God. I honestly don't see any differences other than ethnic and religious identity: their approaches and policies are basically identical.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that both are funded by and represent the interests of a global superpower rather than those of the people of the region in which they operate.

Now why the hell would Israel recognize the legitimacy of a terrorist group? You are an idiot and are far from living in reality.

I think its long past time to do something about these moonbats invading Soccerdad.

Well Laura, the reason Israel would recognize the legitimacy of Hamas is because they were democratically elected by the people of Gaza in elections which were, by all accounts, fair and accurate. Also, because Hamas is the direct product of Israeli obfuscation - after Fatah spent so many years negotiating with Israel but accomplishing nothing for the people and growing absurdly corrupt, they lost the support of the Palestinian people. Hamas has support for many reasons, but the top two are the rampant corruption of Fatah and the perception that negotiations are just a way for Israel to buy time and space to continue its pursuit of Greater Israel and system of racial oppression.

Also, Laura, you have to make do with things as they actually exist. You may wish Hamas was not democratically elected. You may wish that Hamas was not a major player which is integral to any successful peace agreement. You may wish that you were queen of the world. In the end, however, what you wish is irrelevant. In comparison, most Americans wish that Netanyahu's crazy, racist, Jewish-Supremacist, ultra-nationalist self was not the current Israeli leader. We wish that Israelis would have rejected the overtly racist campaign of Liebermann and elected a Kadima-Labor government with a landslide majority significant enough to allow them whatever approach was most likely to succeed. Is it appropriate then for America to simply refuse to accept the legitimacy of Netanyahu's government and try to establish a peace agreement by negotiating only with Fatah, Hamas, and the various Arab neighbors of Israel? Would there be any way that such an approach could work?

hitler was also democratically elected. This does not make hamas any more legitimate.

Racial oppression my ass. Arabs in Israel are freer and have greater human rights than Arabs in Arab countries.

With regards to "greater Israel". Take a good look at a map of the Middle East, and notice how miniscule Israel is compared to the Arab countries and then claim again with a straight face that Israel is an expansionist power, grabbing Arab lands. What a crock.

I find it noteworthy that your response failed to address my main point on why Israel should recognize Hamas - they are undeniably a major player which enjoys widespread support among the Palestinian people and without whom no peace agreement is worth the paper it is printed on.

Racial oppression my ass. Arabs in Israel are freer and have greater human rights than Arabs in Arab countries.

And homeless people in a homeless shelter have a better quality of life than those sleeping on a park bench in winter, but that doesn't mean they have a high quality of life.

In fact Arabs DO have a high quality of life in Israel.

I did address your point. Israel should not recognize hamas because hamas is a terrorist gang who's charter is for the complete destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel. There is no middle ground between existing and not existing. There's nothing to negotiate with hamas since their dispute with Israel is not simply about its territorial borders but rather its very existence. It is their ideological, theological belief that a sovereign Jewish state does not have the right to exist on what they consider islamic land. Why is this obvious point, stated openly by hamas, so hard for liberals to grasp?

You are wasting your time, Laura. ANYONE who attempts to equate Israel with a group of thugs like Hamas doesn't deserve the time of day. Hamas has NO ONE to blame for their current predicament but their own Arab brethren, PERIOD. People like "Reality" are just yet further examples of those who would use "The Jooooos" as a convenient scapegoat.

Interestingly enough, the English word hosanna (from the Xian Greek) has come to mean "praise", while the original Hebrew, Hoshana, means "pleassave" or "Save now". Since Hosni Mubarak neither deserves praise, nor is capable of (nor willing to) "saving" us or the Egyptians, he is definitely not worthy of having the term applied to him. In the correct meaning, there is only One that the term can be applied to.