However, talking to Hamas in any capacity, and thereby easing their international isolation, would have the perverse effect of strengthening the group and setting back peace efforts further, rather than advancing them.

NOT talking to them has done exactly the same thing. Even the Israelis have, after their neat little offensive, given up on the idea of forcibly removing Hamas, and while they maintain barriers like the blockade, Hamas is going to come back and attack them again.

Beside which, Israel is already talking to Hamas, through Egypt. The fact that the United States is in denial over this and the realities on the ground doesn't change that.

It is vital to recall the nature of Hamas. Both by its charter and by its actions, Hamas has demonstrated itself committed to both the destruction of Israel and the persecution of its fellow Palestinians.

The same Palestinians who voted them in as an elected government?

Besides, like most conservative commentators, you naturally focus on the meaningless words and not on the substance. In practice, Hamas has offered various truces to Israel, which Israel has then sometimes agreed to and sometimes not, and always broken.

The recent conflict in Gaza was sparked by indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli towns, despite the fact that Israel had long ago withdrawn completely from the Strip.

No, it was sparked because Israel broke the 6-month truce by carrying out an assassination attempt on the Hamas leadership in Gaza, to which Hamas responded with rocket fire. Then, after some shooting back and forth, Israel refused the truce, and refused to lower the blockade as part of the truce (same with the Egyptians). Since the truce was then meaningless in all but name, Hamas decided it was better to fight and get some possible victory out of the Israelis.

responsible Palestinian leaders like Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad seek to build. We must be clear-headed and full-throated in our condemnation of the former and support for the latter.

We have - and it has done nothing for us. Words are nothing but empty wind in this part of the world unless they match the reality on the ground, and offer something other than the same pieties that have been spoken so many times in the Middle East that they've lost meaning.

Hamas does not hide its opposition to peace. Their spokesman, Osama Hamdan, recently stated that reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah depended on the latter ending its involvement in the peace process.

So, in other words, Hamas doesn't respect the Fatah-negotiated peace process. What a surprise!

It took decades for Palestinian leaders to agree to foreswear the destruction of Israel and to instead pursue a negotiated resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the two-state concept.

Decades in which the Israeli government was fostering Hamas much in the same way Hamas has received help from Iran.

It would mean a return to the days of Israel having to defend its right to exist, and of peace-seeking Palestinians being marginalized.

This is laughable at the time when Abbas is being undermined because of Fatah's perceived inaction on the Gaza War, and when most of the Palestinian population (not surprisingly) sympathized with the Gazans.

This would be a mistake –- rather than focusing on rejectionists who wish to move backwards, we should move urgently forward with the majorities on both sides who earnestly desire peace and prosperity.

Please. 46% of Palestinians support the Two-State Solution - and that's "Two States", not "Israel next to a Palestinian neighbor with no defenses and limited control of its border, with no East Jerusalemn and worthless Negev desert land so the Israelis can keep settlement blocs."

Try writing this again when you have something more to offer other than meaningless pieties and the Washington Consensus View.

With the Gaza battlefield still smoldering we now hear voices calling for the rebuilding of Gaza. Einstein defined insanity as – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It appears we are going to consign the Gazans to endless despair. In 1948 the population of Gaza was 250,000 today 1,500,000. Chronic shortages of water, energy and arable land will make it impossible for them despite all the billions of dollars that have poured in over the years from the EU, United States, Israel, UNRWA and others. Originally used as a dumping ground by Egypt for members of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has now become a hotbed of Islamic radicalism with the Egyptian Foreign Minister stating recently that Egypt would not allow an Islamist state in Gaza. What to do? Population transfer has some precedence. Prior to the 1990 Gulf War 400,000 Palestinians resided in Kuwait. When Arafat and Company backed Saddam and lost, Kuwait ethnically cleansed their Palestinians without any “help” from the UN or an outcry from any corner of the world. Saudi Arabia offers hope and promise for all with vast amounts of unused land, a population of some 27,000,000 including over 5,000,000 foreigners (guest workers). Why not allow Gazans and other Palestinian Arabs to flourish in place of these foreigners?

No need to repost entirely my comments in response to Mitchell Reiss [click the link] but the two of you make more or less the same argument. Facts are facts, and you choose to ignore them.
A recap:
-Hamas wanted to bring unaligned politicians into its government. Israel threatened them with assassination.
-Israel originally supported Hamas against secular Fatah, and against proponents of Gandhian non-violence.
-Israel has a greater history of truce-breaking than Hamas.
I could add to the list if you want, but you know the facts as much as I do.
And they make you nervous.

I'm guessing that like Michael Oren, you see defending Israeli policy as part of your job.

So respond to Uri Avnery and Jerry Haber.
I'm sorry I'm making it so hard on you, not including any A-rabs in my links.