CIAO DATE: 07/04

Dealing With Hamas

Abstract

The escalating cycle of Israeli-Palestinian military confrontation since September 2000, the breakdown in mutual trust and continued suicide bombings by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - the most recent on 14 January 2004 - have returned the problem of how to deal with Hamas to the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian political and diplomatic equation.

For many Israeli and U.S., and some Palestinian, officials, confrontation is the only acceptable answer. Hamas opposes Israel's existence. Its ideology and actions contradict the very concept of Israeli- Palestinian coexistence and seek to escalate the conflict. It has repeatedly committed horrendous acts of terrorism against civilians and sabotaged progress towards a political settlement. The argument is that a meaningful ceasefire, let alone durable peace, is impossible without defeating Hamas militarily.

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