I failed to report one important statement that Mustafa Barghouti made at Columbia the other night. He specifically addressed the new neoconservative claim (championed here by Peter Berkowitz in the Weekly Standard) that Israel can't talk to Hamas because Iran is supporting Hamas.
Barghouti said, "They are trying to find an excuse for the ongoing problem… Twenty years before, the PLO was the problem. They said, 'Your problem is that you are allied with the Soviet Union.' Well the Soviet Union is gone and the problem is still there. The PLO has accepted Oslo and become kosher, and the problem is still there. Next we will hear that the problem is the relationship to Azerbaijan. You can always look for excuses. The problem is there. It's called occupation, it's called oppression, it's called injustice."
(Phil Weiss)
Phil,
You are so focused on your "hobbyhorse" that you are missing the big picture. It's Iran, not Hamas. In Israel the fear is Iran and the big push is to get the US to attack Iran. Hamas and the general PA/Israel two-state ditty is just the carrot tossed out to entice us into attacking Iran. Then the two state solution will be possible, don't cha know. Of course attacking Iran is the prerequisite.
If the left buys this claptrap they deserve what follows.