Daily Archives: February 12, 2007

The Israeli government miscalculated when it based its approach toward Hamas on its blind faith in the economic and political boycott. Only two weeks ago, this reporter heard Israel's 83-year-old Deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, the architect of the 1993 Oslo Accord, declare that "only with economics can we make peace." Peres went on to say that if members of terrorist groups perceive economic incentives, they will cease to be terrorists. Peres, not a religious man, has never understood the tenacity of a terrorist movement which is grounded in religion - not only in prosperity.