Mr. Solana argued in his op/ed piece that in order to preserve the fragile truce that the Israelis and Palestinians reached on Tuesday, the Palestinian terrorist groups must be left alone. Hopefully, the terrorists will abandon violence on their own, right? Wrong. Thursday, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched 46 mortars at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. This after several Hamas spokesmen announced that they were not bound by the cease-fire agreement. In doing so, they are spitting in the face of an emerging Palestinian democracy.

Hamas considers itself to be a member of Palestinian society, so long as the majority favors its tactics. Once people start looking for solutions that don’t involve murder, Hamas declares itself outside the law. That takes guts, doesn’t it?

Solana then asserts that terrorism gets a bad rap in our post Sept. 11, 2001 world! If anyone who reads this has fond memories of the Oklahoma City Bombing or the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen (both are pre 9/11 attacks), please feel free to write in. The fact is, terrorists do not compromise. Hamas’ stated goal is still the annihilation of Israel, and it has shown with its most recent attack that it is willing to scuttle Palestinian self-determination to reach this goal. The only viable option to preserve a two-state solution is disarming the terrorists. Israel is right to demand that they be disarmed. Only then will there be a real peace agreement where Palestinians will achieve the statehood that they deserve.

Eddie Brener

sophomore in LAS