The Terrible Engagement

clipped from www.jpost.com IN PURPORTING to want to use Hamas against al-Qaida, the "engagement" lobby would apparently sacrifice Israel's interests to appease Islamist demands. But as the relatively moderate Arab regimes understand only too well, legitimizing Hamas, Hizbullah and the Brotherhood will put rocket fuel behind Islamism itself throughout the region. Israel is merely the pawn in a much broader war - and the big loser will be a Western world which does not understand the suicidal game that it is being seduced into playing. Ultimately, the Western "engagement" rationale is a brutal one. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, for example, appears to believe that Israel must talk to Hamas because it is inevitable that Hamas will defeat Fatah. It is a doctrine which effectively holds that power confers legitimacy, however illegitimately it has been pursued. It is hard to imagine an argument that hands terror a greater victory.