THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 38, February 6, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PROFESSORS PUSH ISRAEL TO NEGOTIATE WITH HAMAS
By Janet Doerflinger
THE SUBVERSIVE & TREASONABLE CHARACTER OF MANY U.S. COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS OF MIDDLE EAST
STUDIES: THE PROFESSORS' DEMAND THAT ISRAEL, A SOVEREIGN STATE & ALLY OF THE U.S.A., NEGOTIATE WITH
HAMAS, AN ISLAMIST TERRORIST ORGANIZATION RESPONSIBLE FOR MURDERING & MAIMING NUMEROUS INNOCENT
ISRAELIS & DEDICATED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- WHY STRATEGIES INVOLVING ISRAEL'S
ACCEPTANCE OF & NEGOTIATION WITH HAMAS ARE ILL-ADVISED -- A CRITIQUE OF THE CONSTANT ACADEMIC
CRITICISMS OF ISRAELI POLICY & SOCIETY
FULL STORY:
Prominent college and university Middle East Studies Professors argue that Israel should conduct negotiations with
Hamas, a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip. Thus, the Professors
demand that Israel -- a sovereign state -- negotiate with a terrorist organization responsible for murdering and maiming
many innocent Israelis and dedicated to Israel's destruction.
Among these Professors, are the following:
Rashid Khalidi, of Columbia University, who believes the
most serious obstacle to reaching an Israeli-Palestinian
final status agreement is U.S. opposition to a Palestinian
unity government that would include both Hamas and
Fatah. He also says that, in order to get an agreement,
the United States will have to stop siding with Israel.
Fawaz Gerges (Sarah Lawrence College and the London
School of Economics), who claims -- against all evidence
-- that Hamas has become more moderate. He argues
that engaging Hamas would encourage it to continue to
moderate, and strengthen moderates in the Palestinian
territories and throughout the region. Gerges agrees
with Khalidi that there can be no viable, lasting peace
while Hamas is excluded from the process and the
Palestinians are divided.
Augustus Richard Norton (Boston University) and
Sara Roy (Harvard University), who, in a joint op-ed,
also argue that Hamas has moderated. They oppose
the policy begun under former U.S. President George
W. Bush of favoring the Palestinian Authority, while
isolating and penalizing Hamas, to encourage
Palestinians to choose the moderate path.
Ian Lustik (University of Pennsylvania), who believes
Israel can have peace with Hamas, even without
difficult final status negotiations, by simply accepting
a 20 to 30-year hudna, or ceasefire, which he says
Hamas has offered.
Lawrence Davidson (West Chester University), who
seconds the notion of a longterm hudna and explains
Israel's failure to accept Hamas's olive branches
resulting from what he calls an Israeli mindset that
"favors endless war."
John Esposito, Director of Georgetown University's
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding, who advocates treating Hamas,
Israel, and the Palestinian Authority evenhandedly
and pressuring Israel to enhance America's popularity
among Muslims.
These strategies are ill-advised. Hamas has shown no proclivity to recognizing Israel's right to exist or to abiding by
previous cease-fires. They are, after all, terrorists who specialize in killing innocent civilians. Their corrupt, brutal rule in
Gaza reveals their true nature far more than any apologias from their academic defenders.
Moreover, the Middle East Studies establishment has, for years, held Israel to significantly higher standards of conduct
than neighboring Arab states. Amidst their constant criticisms of Israeli policy and society, one hears precious little
about the brutality of Arab regimes, the treatment of women in traditional Muslim societies, or other social pathologies
common in the region. With such a record, one wonders why Israelis should turn to Middle East Studies Professors for
advice and counsel on what is, for Israel, an existential question: trusting those sworn to killing Israelis and undermining
the State of Israel.
This advice, if followed, would weaken Israel in two important ways. First, negotiating with terrorists is generally a bad
idea because it legitimizes them and weakens the moderates. Engagement convinces the terrorists that their target state
is weak, that terrorism is a successful tactic, and that additional terrorist acts will achieve their goals. In this sense,
negotiation encourages terrorism, unless a terror group has been defeated militarily. Examples of counterproductive
negotiations with terrorists include those with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) before its defeat, the Oslo Accords with
Yasser Arafat, and those in Fallujah, Iraq, following the April, 2004 siege.
The desire to engage with terrorists betrays a failure to understand either the terrorists or civilized society. It asks the
negotiators to overlook the terrorists' convictions, delude themselves into thinking that terrorists are more like them than
they, in fact, are, and blinds the negotiators to their own weaknesses. As Middle East analyst Lee Smith observed, in the
Mideast, diplomacy is usually an instrument of warfare used to stall, exact concessions, or confuse the other side.
All these Professors are united by their failure to recognize (or admit) the true nature and goals of Hamas, a militant
Islamist terror organization dedicated to killing Jews and ending Jewish sovereignty and self-determination in the Middle
East. Nor do they acknowledge that Israel is a constitutional democracy whose exemplary human rights record is all the
more extraordinary, since it constantly needs to battle the aggression of its neighbors. Urging Israel to hold peace talks
with Hamas is yet another example of the poor foreign policy prescriptions that result from the distorted viewpoint that is,
unfortunately, so prevalent today among the Middle East Studies faculties of our colleges and universities.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education, Training, & America's Schools:
Institutions of Elementary, Secondary, & Higher Education
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Janet Doerflinger is a writer whose interests include public affairs and foreign policy. This essay was written for Campus
Watch, a program of the Middle East Forum.
The foregoing article by Janet Doerflinger was originally published in American Thinker, February 6, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org//2829/hamas- professors)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
February 6, 2011
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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