Why Peace is Hard to Come By in the Middle East

In exchange for peace with Egypt, Israel gave back the entire Sinai peninsula, including the only oil wells that Israel had. Israel wants peace more than just about anything and is willing to do just about anything in order to get it.

People seem to forget how the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and Golan Heights happened to come into Israel's possession. Hint: several nations attacked Israel but lost the war with them. Oddly, although the Arab states had controlled those regions from 1948-1967, the PLO, formed in 1964 never attacked Jordan, Egypt or Syria; they only threatened Israel; and no one suggested, between 1948-1967, that Jordan, Egypt or Syria establish a Palestinian state, despite the fact that the original UN mandate that created Israel as a Jewish state also created a Palestinian Arab state that Jordan, Egypt and Syria merely annexed for themselves.

And yet Israel is commonly criticized as somehow being intransigent and the cause of all conflict. Of course, such critics of Israel seem unaware--and unwilling to become aware--of what the Palestinians believe and say. The Palestinians voted Hamas into power in Gaza. What does Hamas believe? What are their goals? What do they want?

Hamas has a charter. You can read it in translation.Here is an interesting passage from the Hamas charter:

Peaceful Solutions, Initiatives and International Conferences:

Article Thirteen:

Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight. "Allah will be prominent, but most people do not know."

Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters. When did the infidels do justice to the believers?

"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah." (The Cow - verse 120).

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with. As in said in the honourable Hadith:

"The people of Syria are Allah's lash in His land. He wreaks His vengeance through them against whomsoever He wishes among His slaves It is unthinkable that those who are double-faced among them should prosper over the faithful. They will certainly die out of grief and desperation."

So tell me again, who is it that's setting roadblocks in the way of peace? And how, realistically, do we fix this sort of problem? And some people wonder why Hamas is considered a terrorist organization.