My Hope for Israel-PA peace in the Hamas period

So many times my hopes for Israeli/Palestinian peace has been dashed.

But if it took Nixon to go to "Red" China and Sharon, the greater Isreal and settlements proponent, to cede Gaza, so I hope that it will take Hamas to recognize Israel and drop the terrorism.

In Hamas' favor is that the organization is much more accountable to the Palestinian street, effectively delivering social services with much much less corruption than the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority did, siphoning billions of dollars to offshore private accounts. By the time Arafat took over the PA in the early 1990s, he was old, corrupt, and passed by by the real Intifadah of the 1980s. The real Intifah was led by students much of whom are part of what is now Hamas. They have been the vanguard for twenty years, leaving incompetent Fatah with its cult of personality and its dead scheming billionaire Arafat behind.

As international aid dries up, perhaps the Palestinian grassroots that Hamas is connected with will push the party leaders for peace concessions for aid, so Hamas can do what it does best for the Palestinians, deliver services. Perhaps the pressure of Hamas being leaders, and not advocates, will give the Hamas politicians impetus to make the difficult leap to peaceful co-existence.

I have long believed that Israelis and Palestinians and its Arab neighbors can trade prosperously with each other in business, agriculture and the arts.

But I also note former Israeli President Abba Eban's saying that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.