The Current Discussion: Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that Hamas is doing all it can to torpedo the Mideast peace process -- but Ephraim Halevy, former head of Mossad, thinks it's time to include the Islamist group in peace talks. Who's right?

The problem has to do more with the US attitude towards Iran and Syria rather than its attitude towards Hamas. Furthermore, the big question is whether the Bush administration believes in engaging with any Muslim movement (radical or moderate).

Regarding Syria and Iran, the US has to decide what to do with the olive branch that Syria and to a lesser degree Iran have waved. True, the issue of Lebanon and the election of a Lebanese president is holding things up, but some kind of engagement with Islamists (Hezbollah included) would most probably soften Syria's attitude toward the presidency and would loosen up its hardline attitudes toward Hamas.

A zero sum game with Islamists has proven a failure and a more sensible strategy would be to engage moderate Islamists and to give up on the my way or the highway attitudes. By hardening their position, the Americans are encouraging the Lebanese majority to refuse compromises and the same regarding the Israelis and Hamas. As has been leaked, the Israelis are much more practical on this regard than the Americans