Hamas must choose: peace or terror

The good news is the Palestinian people had a fair and open parliamentary election. The bad news is the wrong side won.

Hamas' stunning victory this week in the Palestinian territories confirms fears by many observers of Mideast politics who warn that advocates of democracy should be careful what they ask for in that troubled part of the world - that Arab nations now ruled by friendly-to-the-West despots could be edged out by radical anti-West, Israeli-hating Muslim terrorists. Hamas' smashing win illustrates the point.

Hamas is a fundamentalist Islamic group with ties to al-Qaida that refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist. So, as Israel has made unilateral concessions to nudge along the peace process by unilaterally pulling settlements out of Gaza and making plans to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, the Palestinians vote in a parliament dominated by Muslims who, to borrow a phrase, are committed to wiping Israel off the map.

No wonder Iran welcomed Hamas' election triumph.

In his press conference Wednesday, President Bush tried to put the best face on the outcome, pointing out that many of Hamas' votes came from people who were sick of the corruption of the late Yassir Arafat's long-ruling Fatah Party and its failure to produce even essential government services, such as sewage treatment, clean water, electricity, health care or decent schools.

But the president also noted that neither Israel nor the United States can negotiate with an organization that's committed to the destruction of Israel. Let's hope he means it.

If Hamas is interested in bringing peace as well as better government services to its people, then it must be made to choose - continue to wage its war of terror or lay down its arms and join good-faith peace talks.

It can't have it both ways - a political wing that's non-violent and seeking diplomatic respectability and a terrorist wing that's sponsoring suicide bombings and waging sneak attacks on Israeli civilians.

Unless Hamas makes the right choice - to lay down its arms and support negotiating a peace that grants Israel the right to exist - then not one dollar more of U.S. taxpayers' money should be sent to the Palestinian territories. If the Bush administration is not going to negotiate with terrorists, then it certainly shouldn't be funding them.

Israel, still reeling from the incapacitating illness of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, should nonetheless continue his policy of constructing walls, trenches and fences along Gaza and the West Bank.

These barriers have done much in recent months to prevent suicide bombing attacks on the Israeli side.

Sealing Palestinians off from Israeli populations isn't as good as negotiating a pact that recognizes the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist as separate states living side-by-side in peace .

But unless Hamas changes its stripes, it may be the only kind of peace available in that part of the world.