Originally Posted by astralis

stan,



because israel has more cards to play against hamas than hizballah. hamas isn't as well-armed as hezbollah, and if israel really wanted to, they could make hamas bleed far more heavily in an outright confrontation. also, control of the entrypoints into gaza makes hamas more politically vulnerable.



well, the way i see it, hamas can be influenced in two ways. through negotiation or force. and unless israel is willing to pay the human, economic, and political price of using force- and force massive enough to ensure that they can get what they want- then israel doesn't have much choice in the matter.

yes, hamas is distasteful to say the least, but if the US can negotiate with an enemy power that killed tens of thousands of her boys through suicide bombings, ambushes, execution, and torture (imperial japan)....

in any case, i'm not seeing any tangible harm that may arise from negotiations with hamas. if hamas remains intransigent, israel still has the option of striking. this is how israel got started negotiating with the PLO (another terror organization, after all), no? hell, these days israel actually facilitates giving arms to abbas and fatah.