What to do with Hamas? Part II

Almost a month ago I posted about our need to recognize Hamas as the government of the Palestinian people. In short, it seems to me that due to the democratic process we cannot approve of the elections without approving of the elected; however, what I left out was that there are some things that Hamas needs to do in order to keep that approval.

Former President Clinton, reported by Haaretz, probably feels the same way, yet I find his needs to be a little off base.

So if Hamas would say, suppose they say, 'OK, look, we can't change our theory, we can't change our document, we can't change our history, but we're in government now and the policy of the Palestinian government is no to terror and yes to negotiations. As long as we're in government, we'll honor that policy.' If they did that, I would support dealing with them," Clinton said

What I don't like about Clinton's statement is that, as soon as Hamas leaves power he's okay with them resorting to terror. He's also okay with them leaving their Constitution the way it is. I'm not; I don't think Hamas needs to change it as a precursor to dialogue, but they are under obligation to do so. And once you're a peaceful political party then you are going to be just that forever.