If progress is to be made in the Middle East, the U.S. and Israel must first acknowledge that Hamas is not the problem. The Israeli occupation and impunity are the problem.

Israeli aggression and violations of Palestinian human rights started long before Hamas was even born. Israel has always dealt with the Palestinians as a population that has to be controlled, subdued – even crushed. We may disagree with Hamas’s ideology, but it has gained legitimacy through its resistance to an occupying force, and through fair elections.
Elected representatives of Hamas are as legitimate as President Mahmoud Abbas. But the world, led by the U.S., has chosen to deal selectively with the elected representatives of the Palestinian people and has resorted to its usual acts of collective punishment, bombing and killings. Israel claims that rockets propelled from Gaza are a justification for disproportionately unleashing its advanced military arsenal.

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