Informed Speculation

The L.A. Times calls on Hamas to ‘get real’:

WHETHER THE impetus was a shaky cease-fire in the Gaza Strip or President Bush’s visit to the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday unexpectedly extended an olive branch to the Palestinians. If the Palestinian Authority — including the Islamic party Hamas — doesn’t respond in kind, it will be yet another golden opportunity for Mideast peace squandered.Speaking against the backdrop of a truce designed to end months of violence in Gaza, Olmert offered to engage Palestinians in new talks to create something even many liberal Israelis once considered unthinkable: an independent Palestinian state.

Declaring that “I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it won’t be returned empty,” Olmert offered to uproot Jewish settlements in the West Bank, reduce the number of checkpoints, unfreeze funds withheld from the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority and release “numerous Palestinian prisoners, including ones who are sentenced to lengthy prison terms.”

In exchange, the nascent state of Palestine, and its Hamas-led Cabinet, would have to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and Hamas would have to return Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June. The stage would then be set for negotiations toward the two-state solution envisioned in the “road map” for peace endorsed in 2002 by the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union.

Of course, Hamas will allow no such thing:

Hamas spokesmen, on the other hand, denounced Olmert’s statements as “a new conspiracy” against the Palestinians. Referring to Olmert’s demand that the Palestinians relinquish the right of return for the refugees to their original homes inside Israel, Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government said: “This is a conspiracy, especially since Olmert is trying to bypass the core of the Palestinian cause, namely the right of return for the refugees. This speech is lacking in clarity.”

Syria-based Musa Abu Marzouk, the No. 2 man in the Hamas leadership, said the right of return for the refugees is “sacred” for all Palestinians. “The Palestinian people will never give up this sacred right,” he said. “Our people have been fighting for 58 years to achieve the right of return for all those who were expelled from their homeland. We reject any deal that does not recognize the right of return.”

The ‘right of return’ will never, ever, ever (that’s never) be agreed to by the Israelis for the simple reason that it would mean the demographic destruction of Israel.  We’re right back to square one, and it looks like it will stay that way.

Sharon was right: build the wall, then disengage.  The Palestinian leadership is not ready for peace…