A Lesson In Geography For Layton/Doucette Et Al

EDITORIAL: Politics 101: Israel is real

Here’s today’s geography lesson.

Pick an atlas of the world, any atlas.

Now flip to the map of the Mideast.

Look for the tiny country located south of Lebanon, north of Saudi Arabia, east of Egypt, west of Jordan.

Got it? Good. What’s that country’s name?

“Israel,” you say? Congratulations!

You have just officially “recognized” Israel.

You now have a more realistic understanding of the Mideast compared to many if not most Palestinian textbooks and virtually any Islamic terrorist group, in particular Hamas.

Hamas refuses to “recognize” Israel, which is somewhat similar to taking a bath while refusing to recognize the bathtub.

If the issue wasn’t so deadly serious the “who’s on first?” routine Hamas is now doing with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas would be funny.

Last week, Abbas emphatically assured the United Nations that Hamas is now prepared to join with him in forming a Palestinian unity government that will recognize Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas was just as emphatically responding “WHAT?”

Or, in the words of Ahmed Yousef, political adviser to Hamas Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, “there won’t be a national unity government if Hamas is asked to recognize Israel.” Which you have to admit, seems pretty clear.

Yousef said Hamas would agree to a temporary truce with Israel of up to 10 years while negotiating to end the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. He didn’t say what would happen to the temporary truce, known as a hudna, if negotiations collapsed, but we can all pretty much guess.

As for what’s been going on between Hamas and Israel in Gaza since the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon ended, the answer is more of the same. As Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told Haaretz last week, Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel. It’s just that the world’s attention has moved on.

At some point, we do hope Hamas agrees to “recognize” Israel — genuinely — at which point countries like Canada should restore funding to the Palestinian Authority.

But if Hamas wants to be recognized by Canada and other nations, it must first recognize Israel.

Which sounds simple. Then again, this is the Mideast.