Read Between the Lines

Today Hamas threatened to unleash a third intifada if a viable, real Palestinian state did not begin to coalesce within six months. Unfortunately for Hamas, intifadas are spontaneous and most Palestinians are tired of fighting for a state for forty years, if not longer. But the threat is not what actually struck me, it was the content and declaration that didn't sound anything like Hamas.

We're always told that Hamas is out to destroy Israel and drive the Jewish inhabitants of historic Palestine into the sea. Has anyone heard of rhetoric? Most political organizations, like Hamas, wouldn't get two feet toward a goal if they were not flexible. Hamas is pragmatic and shouldn't be pigeonholed as a rigid fundamentalist group.

So at his press conference today the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, described his goal. He said: "We give the international community six months for real political horizons . . . There is a historic opportunity for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders."

Did you catch that? Within the 1967 borders. What happened to driving the Jews into the sea that we always hear about? It sounds a lot like Meshaal is endorsing the mainstream two-state solution pushed by all the parties to this conflict.

I doubt that Israel will grasp at this lifeline Hamas is throwing because Hamas is a "terrorist" organization. It's really quite sad. If Hamas has accepted the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders perhaps Israel should too. As much as we're told that Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel, perhaps by rejecting this olive branch, Israel is demonstrating that it is not willing to make peace and let go of its settlements in the West Bank.

Perhaps what's needed is an Israeli intifada against their own government. Though Israelis are equally as burned out as Palestinians and the rest of us by this never ending war.