President Mahmoud Abbas of the
Palestinian Authority reached a deal for a unity government with Hamas on
February 6, 2012—which was also the sixtieth anniversary of the Accession Day
of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned
that a unity government with Hamas would rule out any chance of making peace
with Israel. Meanwhile, the E.U. and U.S., as well as the state of Israel, had
conditioned recognition and aid to Hamas on that party renouncing violence,
recognizing Israel, and agreeing to previous agreements reached between the
P.L.O. and Israel. In short, for all that achieving a unity government requires
in terms of hard decisions and effort, the accomplishment was not exactly
valued by Israel and the West. Aside from the baleful consequences in refusing
to recognize something of value out of stubbornness and inflexibility, Israel
and the West may have been hurting themselves by ruling out a chance for peace
at the outset.
The full essay is at "Refusing for Its Own Sake."
