EXTREMISM VALIDATED

An expert on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict gives his take on the Hamas election victory:

Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group in many Western countries and has carried out attacks against Israeli civilians. Its charter specifically refers to the destruction of Israel and the implementation of an Islamic State under sharia law. There is no need to romanticise the organisation but neither is it helpful to demonise a democratically-elected government...

Western, embedded, self-appointed terror 'experts' chose to interpret the win as confirmation that the Palestinians are committed to the eradication of Israel. It is nothing of the sort.

Further expert opinion is that Hamas's new prime minister should be taken at his word:

... it’s important to begin negotiations based on his comments that Hamas is willing to establish an independent Palestinian state if Israel withdraws to 1967 borders.

The reality:

Two Hamas lawmakers on Sunday dismissed any future peace talks with Israel, calling past negotiations "a failed experiment" and said Arab nations had rejected U.S. pressure to force the militant Palestinian movement to moderate.

Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Saeed Syiam made the comments during a gathering of Arab parliamentarians on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea.

Speaking to The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference, Zahar asserted that Hamas' recent upset victory in last month's legislative elections strengthened its hardline stand.

"We don't consider the Israeli enemy a partner. By winning the elections, we defeated Israel," he said. "Why should we recognize Israel? Pressure is coming from the United States on us, not from Arab countries."

He said negotiations between the previous Palestinian government and Israel "a failed experience that would not be repeated."

You're an expert if you say you are, right?