Jeffrey Goldberg has a fantastic New York Times op-ed on Hamas today.Calling it an "op-ed" doesn't do it justice, because it's filled with great scene reporting with some truly bizarre, twisted characters. You should definitely read the piece just for the up-close look at Hamas, but Goldberg's conclusion is also pretty sensible:
There is a fixed idea among some Israeli leaders that Hamas can be bombed into moderation. This is a false and dangerous notion. It is true that Hamas can be deterred militarily for a time, but tanks cannot defeat deeply felt belief.
The reverse is also true: Hamas cannot be cajoled into moderation. Neither position credits Hamas with sincerity, or seriousness.
The only small chance for peace today is the same chance that existed before the Gaza invasion: The moderate Arab states, Europe, the United States and, mainly, Israel, must help Hamas’s enemy, Fatah, prepare the West Bank for real freedom, and then hope that the people of Gaza, vast numbers of whom are unsympathetic to Hamas, see the West Bank as an alternative to the squalid vision of Hassan Nasrallah and Nizar Rayyan.
--Jonathan Chait