(TJV) In a 2007 op-ed in FT, Soros called on the Bush administration and Israel to work together with Hamas instead of refuting its authority, and installing a blockade around the Palestinian territory to reject Hamas’s primary mission of establishing a Palestinian state through violent methods with Jerusalem as its capital, popular blog Zero Hedge pointed out
Israel, with strong US backing, refused to recognize the democratically elected Hamas government and withheld payment of the millions in taxes collected by the Israelis on its behalf,” wrote Soros, suggesting the move would lead to worsening relations in the region.
“If Israel had accepted the results of the election, that might have strengthened the more moderate political wing,” Soros added. “Unfortunately, the ideology of the ‘war on terror’ does not permit such subtle distinctions.”
Hamas has likewise refused to acknowledge the existence of the Jewish state, which Soros said Israel should get over.
“The sticking-point is Hamas’s unwillingness to recognize the existence of Israel, but that could be made a condition for an eventual settlement rather than a precondition for negotiations,” he wrote, adding that whatever the case, the US and Israel should negotiate with Hamas.
“Defenders of the current policy argue that Israel cannot afford to negotiate from a position of weakness. But Israel’s position is unlikely to improve as long as it pursues its current course,” Soros’s op-ed continued, citing decades of violence between Jews and Palestinians, and calling on Israel to forego future military action which the US should support.
“Demonstrating military superiority is not sufficient as a policy for dealing with the Palestinian problem,” wrote Soros. “It would be tragic to miss out on that prospect because the Bush administration is mired in the ideology of the war on terror.”
