So Israel signs a bunch of agreements and, in the course of ten years, gives up a lot of tangible things to the Palestinians – money, weapons, and, you know, land. In return, all the Palestinians have to do is promise to stop killing Israelis. They never really did that, but at times they kind of pretended. Hamas wants you to know that this whole “pretending to not want to kill Jews” agreement thing ends right now:
Uncompromising message: Hamas will not honor agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority should the Islamic group win the upcoming elections, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar told the New York Times.
But hey, Europeans overwhelmingly believe that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace. And if the Europeans commented on it, it must be true.
This story throws into stark relief the particular problem in making virtually irreversible concessions to thugs and autocrats – when they’re replaced by other thugs and autocrats, you have to start all over. Except when you’re giving away something for nothing, your bargaining position definitionally gets worse every time. Which is one of the many, many reasons why land for peace negotiations with Syria and/or surrendering the Golan have always been such spectacularly stupid ideas.
