NY Times: Don't ignore Mideast conflict

In Saturday's editorial, newspaper says deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian situation can get a whole lot worse if outside world averts its attention
Ynetnews

In an editorial titled "A problem that can't be ignored," the New York Times newspaper on Saturday called on the world not to avert its attention from the deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian situation, claiming that would only worsen the situation.

According to the NY Times, "there's a barely concealed wish among many old Mideast hands these days to walk away from the steadily deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian situation… If the two sides do not really want to negotiate with each other, the argument goes, there's nothing much outsiders can do to help."

Referring to rockets falling on innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians, the editors call on the outside world to strongly resist the temptation to walk away, saying that "as bad as things are now, they can get a whole lot worse."

Admission ticket to real world

As a way to help, the NY Times suggest, the outside world, particularly the Arab and Islamic world, can make it clear to the Palestinian Authority's Hamas-led government that if it wishes to become the legitimate international voice of the Palestinian people, it will have to accept the minimal international ground rules, which include renouncing terrorism, acknowledging Israel's existence as a sovereign nation and abiding by formal agreements previously signed by lawful Palestinian negotiators.

According to the editors, Hamas must view those ground rules – already accepted by Egypt and Jordan and by the Arab League as a whole in its 2002 Beirut peace initiative – as "an admission ticket to the real world, a necessary rite of passage in the progression from a lawless opposition to a lawful government."

Hearing this demand from Arab and Islamic neighbors in the form of friendly persuasion, the NY Times believes, would be harder for Hamas to dismiss and could prove easier for Hamas to accommodate.