Israel's stance against recognizing a Palestinian government composed primarily of Hamas members who do not recognize Israel seems completely understandable. Why should Israel recognize the Hamas movement, which has been declared a terror organization by the countries of the world and whose basic charter claims that "the Zionist entity" has no right to exist?

The Hamas charter was composed after the first intifada erupted in 1987 - that is, nearly 20 years ago, and it reflects a different Palestinian political reality than the one existing today. This does not make much difference to the State of Israel. A substantial Israeli and international effort was invested in the past to convince the PLO to revise its national charter and recognize Israel. A similar demand is now directed at Hamas. Is this movement capable of change?

Several Hamas spokesmen recently said that the movement's leadership was surprised by the scope of its election victory. Hamas activists expected (as projected in the polls) that their movement would garner over a third of the votes and lead a large opposition bloc. But to win a majority of about two-thirds of the parliament and to be able to put together a government by itself? They did not dream of this and they did not prepare for this. If they had prepared, they might have revised some of their rigid ideology a bit, softened their political line in some way and accepted, for example, the Arab initiative that recognizes Israel within the 1967 borders - an initiative on which all of the Arab states have agreed. Are you such heroes that you stand in opposition to all of the Arab states? One day, we will ask the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

	Advertisement

However, in light of the political reality in the Palestinian public, one can confidently say that the Hamas leaders' myriad of linguistic tricks will not meet the demand to recognize Israel, and the gap between them will widen. The representatives of the Quartet (including American diplomats) who met prior to the holiday as the United Nations' General Assembly convened, understand this. Some of them were undoubtedly influenced by the explanations provided by the chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.

Most of the Palestinian public is not demanding that Hamas recognize Israel. This, at least, is what a reliable survey conducted in the territories indicates. The explanation for this is expressed by Hamas spokesmen in every corner, from Rafah to Jenin, and is very accepted in the territories: Look, Yasser Arafat and the PLO recognized the State of Israel in the Oslo agreement and what did they gain from that? Only suffering and misfortune.

The economic siege on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the targeted killings, the raids and checkpoints can be explained as an Israeli defense against terror attacks. But how can one explain the doubling of the number of settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the Madrid conference and Oslo agreement? Since the 1996 elections in Israel, and almost through the end of Ehud Barak's government, there was quite a long period of quiet on the security front. There were almost no terror attacks. During that period, as before, the great momentum of settlement continued. The population of settlers grew from 100,000 to over 200,000 during the 1990s.

When the Israelis build large new neighborhoods in East Jerusalem (Har Homa and Reches Shlomo), expand the neighborhoods and settlements in the Muslim part of the Old City, in Silwan, Ras al-Amud and Sheikh Jarrah, expel Arabs from the city and surround them with tens of thousands of Jewish settlers in a tight belt from Upper Beitar in the south, via Ma'ale Adumim in the east and Givat Ze'ev in the north - this conveys a clear message: There is no chance that the capital of the Palestinian state will be established anywhere in Jerusalem. If you add to this the growth of settlements in Samaria, Ariel, the suburbs of Ramallah, in an expanded Gush Etzion and Mount Hebron, the Israeli message becomes unequivocal: You Palestinians have no chance. You recognized Israel and what you received in return was the liquidation of your national hopes. So why should Hamas repeat the same recognition whose results we have already seen?