The American Spectator

The head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, says that intelligence (not to mention public statements) indicate that Hamas is planning terror attacks aimed at derailing peace talks. Hardly a surprise, but it does put into relief how utterly infantile the self-appointed spokesmen of the American Jewish left have been in suggesting that engaging with Hamas, or even supporting its inclusion in a Hamas-Fatah unity government, might somehow advance the cause of a two-state solution. J-Street’s vacuous position states that “one makes peace with one’s enemies and not one’s friends.” Uh, not if one’s enemies have no interest in making peace.

Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine has written eloquently on why legitimizing Hamas would be completely counterproductive. MJ Rosenberg, one of the writers Ibish has criticized, commented on Twitter the other day, “whats [sic] with Arabs who are to the right of AIPAC?” Leaving aside the absurd assertion that Ibish is to the right of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (which has led to a Twitter feud over the past two days in which Rosenberg has repeatedly misstated Ibish’s positions), I would reframe this: What’s with Jews who are friendlier to Hamas than a professional advocate for Palestinian nationalism?