Saeb Erekat, “chief negotiator” of the Palestine Liberation Organization, recommends in the New York Times (thanks to Sr. Soph) that the world ignore the clear implications of the Hamas victory:
The Hamas victory cannot be allowed to obscure the reality: the Palestinian people want a negotiated peace, and in Mr. Abbas they have a Palestinian Authority president and P.L.O. chairman who shares their view, enjoys a mandate to act and has the ability to deliver. For those committed to reaching a two-state solution, public support on both sides of the conflict likely provides the last opportunity to see our vision materialize. Now we all have a duty to respond immediately to our peoples’ demands for a negotiated peace.
Nonsense. The people aren’t demanding a negotiated peace, and Abbas can’t deliver one. If the people wanted a negotiated peace, they wouldn’t have voted in such large numbers for Hamas. It isn’t as if the organization has ever been shy about what it stands for.