Reverberations from the Hamas landslide

Re “Mideast uncertainty, again,” editorial, Jan. 27

The ideological compatibility of Hamas with jihadi movements in the Middle East raises the question of whether a Hamas state in the Middle East could become a new center for global terrorism, requiring more than ever that Israel maintains defensible borders against the new strategic uncertainty that has been created. Unlike Al Qaeda, Hamas for the most part has not been involved in terrorist attacks against Western targets in the United States and Europe.

Unlike other jihadi affiliate groups from North Africa and Egypt, Hamas was left to focus its military efforts on Israel. However, Hamas has established important, though limited, links with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Many are asking how the rise of Hamas will affect the peace process. In the immediate term, what Israel will need is a security process. The most important measure Israel can take is to isolate any Hamas governing entity from global jihadi elements seeking to reinforce it with insurgents or weaponry that it does not possess.

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed his Gaza withdrawal to President Bush on April 14, 2004, he received a written assurance that the U.S. was committed to Israel retaining defensible borders in the remaining disputed territory of the West Bank. I hope this letter remains valid, for the sake of peace in Israel.

DORE GOLD

Former Israeli Ambassador

to the United Nations

Jerusalem

*

Nothing speaks more clearly and loudly to the failure of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians than the overwhelming election victory of Hamas. With a response to terrorism limited to force and repression, targeted killings and the imposition of oppressive limits on work and travel, Israel has so impoverished life in the occupied territories as to make it all but unbearable for a Palestinian electorate of moderate views.

Many Palestinians with the resources to leave have done so over a period of years, leaving behind an increasingly embittered, radicalized, fundamentalist opposition -- in other words, the current supporters of Hamas.

Preoccupied with the possession of land, and with Jewish demography, Israel has failed to take notice of the effect of its sustained, oppressive policies on a changing Palestinian demography.

LEONARD SCHNEIDERMAN

Former Dean

UCLA School of Social Work

Santa Monica