'We Do Not Wish to Throw Them Into the Sea'

So your solution is complete disengagement from the whole thing both financially and diplomatically?

Crazy enough, might actually work!

 

I believe that much of the problem is economics. The IDF currently protects settlements in the disputed areas, and the military costs would cripple the Israeli economy if it was not being subsidized by the US. If we cut our funding to Israel, in order to not go bankrupt they would abandon the settlements because of their high maintenance costs and the costs to protect Israel because of the violence stemming from the settlement occupation.

Hamas currently has power and government funds, and i'm sure their leaders would like to maintain it and the lush lifestyle it tends to lead to in that region of the world. I'm sure they imagine if their is a state, that when multinational corporations want to sell their products it has to go through some corrupt minister. If we give them economic incentives to making a peace and essentially bribe them, then our image in the world will be helped substantially and most muslims will appreciate our unbiased intervention and will not be as likely to support extremism against the US.

 

oh dont worry they will be..

power breeds corruption no matter how religious people claim to be. there will be people who claim to have the states best interests at heart but will be lining their pockets at some point.

hamas was not corrupt because they didnt really have anything now they have a country, with an economy, and soon a legitimate military. Things will change.

J

 

Well, first it was Egypt and now Saudi is expressing opposition to U.S./Israeli plans to 'isolate' the new Palestinian government led by Hamas (although Fatah has agreed in principle to join the Hamas-led government).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rice

Saudis Reject U.S. Plan to Isolate Hamas

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia on Wednesday became the second Arab ally in as many days to reject the U.S. strategy of financially isolating Hamas if the militant group does not moderate its policies as leader of the Palestinians.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat nearby, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said through a translator, "We wish not to link financial assistance to the Palestinian people to issues other than their dire humanitarian needs."

A day earlier, Rice had stood by as Saud's Egyptian counterpart said it was premature to cut off aid to a Hamas-led government.

Saud and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the world should not "prejudge" Hamas, whose sweep in Palestinian elections last month stunned Washington and threw the Israeli-Palestinian peace process into new turmoil.

Earlier Wednesday, Rice pledged to a group of Egyptian democracy activists in Cairo that the United States would continue applying pressure on Egypt's government to meet its promises of reform.

"One good thing about having the president stand for election and ask for the consent of the governed is that there is a program," Rice told a group of dissidents, editors and professors.

The session followed a breakfast with President Hosni Mubarak, who according to his spokesman reiterated to Rice that Egypt will not bow to U.S. efforts to cut off international aid to the Palestinian government.

Mubarak "emphasized the importance of giving Hamas enough time to assess the current situation and define its positions according to the demands of President Mahmoud Abbas," said presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad.

Awad said U.S.-Egyptian ties were "strategic and deep," but added, "Egypt's decisions are made inside Egypt, not in any other capital or place, despite its interest in advice from its friends."

Rice did not give any details of what she and Mubarak discussed.

Mubarak has pledged a variety of domestic reforms that have yet to come to pass.

Several of the activists told Rice that Mubarak is setting up a false choice between his autocratic rule and the leader of Egypt's Islamic political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The activists did not agree, however, on how Rice should react to the Brotherhood, which is banned in Egypt. Rice has refused to meet with and Muslim Brotherhood members and they were not represented at Wednesday's meeting.

"Eliminating the Muslim Brothers is totally non-democratic," said Tarek Heggy, a writer and former petroleum executive. "The issue is how can we compete with them."

Rice made a point of telling the group that she found at least one of the cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad that have inflamed the Muslim world to be "offensive personally." But she said the violent reaction to publication of the cartoons was "wrong and in some cases manufactured."

A sometimes heated press conference with Gheit in Cairo illustrated the difficulties the Bush administration is meeting in seeding political freedom in the Middle East.

Rice was asked whether the United States intended to impose a "democracy of torture" and human rights abuses. That, the reporter suggested, is what the United States has wrought in Iraq.

Others wanted to know why the United States is focused only on Iran's nuclear ambitions instead of on the nuclear weapons held by Israel, and whether the Bush administration might bomb Iran.

"Our aspiration is not that people will have an American-style democracy. American-style democracy is for Americans," Rice said. "But that there will be a democracy that is for Egypt or for Iraq or for any other people on this Earth, because democracy is the only form of government in which human beings truly get to express themselves."