Dear Mr. President,
In Hebrew, when someone has done something praise-worthy, we say “kol ha-kavod” (all the honor to you). After reading this article, I want to say “Kol ha-kavod!” to you. I’m going to ignore the finger pointing at Israel that you do in the article for the moment, and focus on your comments directed at Hamas, because I think they are both more important and should have a bigger impact on the current situation.

You said:

“(kidnapped IDF soldier) Gilat Shalit has cost the Palestinian people more than 1,000 casualties and Palestinians are continuing to die because of the rocket fire (on Israel). What resistance are we talking about here? Do the rocket fire and suicide attacks constitute resistance?

“Seven thousand rockets were fired from Gaza, and they killed 10 Israelis; and all the while Hamas has looked to protects its leaders and not the Palestinian people…We asked Hamas to stop the pointless rocket attacks, which are doing more damage than good, in order to bring an end to the Israeli aggression and its siege of the Palestinian people,”

Thank you for reading the situation correctly, Mr. President. And thank you for finally speaking up about the atrocities that you’ve known were taking place for years. The Palestinians, YOUR people, have a right to a state - but not a terrorist one. And I think we’d be light-years ahead of where we are now (and further along in the peace process), if Shalit hadn’t been kidnapped (and kept for the better part of two years now), and if the rocket fire and terrorist attacks weren’t happening.

But I have to be honest with you, Mr. President. I think you could have gone a step further with your criticism. Although I know that you are currently in a tenuous political position, I do believe that there is still a moderate Palestinian voice, and they are looking to you to show them the way. They need you, and they need you now. They need you to stand up to Hamas, and to say to the people in Gaza, that they are fighting a loosing and pointless battle. They need you to show them that there is another way.

We have a long road ahead of us towards peace - but we won’t get there if we don’t start. Its going to be a hard process - and the best solution is going to be the one that makes the most people the least unhappy. Thats key here. No one is going to get everything that they want. We’re all going to have to give in a lot and trust that the other side is giving in too. We have to walk to the negotiating table with our heads held high, ready to made a change.

Mr. President, the Palestinian people need you to show them that you can do that. They need you to validate their moderate beliefs. There are loving, compassionate, life-affirming parents out there who are confronted every day by their children who come home from school or play-groups repeating the slurs and words of hatred that they hear from Hamas followers. Those parents need you to show them that their beliefs are not for naught. Because without you to represent them against Hamas, they will quickly lose faith in everything you represent, and seeing no other alternative, turn to support terrorism. And without them, without the moderate Palestinian voice...well, this situation will spiral downhill, and fast.

I want you to know, you are not the only person in the Arab world directly criticism towards Hamas. The Jerusalem Post is reporting that a Kuwaiti newspaper stood apart from the rest of the Arab world:

“The attack at the yeshiva was a barbaric murder of eight children who were engaged in religious study,” read an op-ed in the daily Al-Watan. “This odious and inhuman terror attack exemplifies the extremist and inhuman path of the terror organizations Hamas and Hizbullah.”

The writer goes on to assert that “the terror attack must prompt the free world to comprehend the magnitude of terrorism and its threats and to realize that a clear and unequivocal stance must be assumed against it. There can be no negotiations with terrorism that indiscriminately aims itself at students, women and babies without any consideration for the means and the targets.”

Contrasting the terror attack with the IDF’s operations in the Gaza Strip, the writer explains that “there is no link between a murderous terrorist act and the inadvertent killing of civilians in response to the firing of rockets by Hamas.”

Its comments like these (yours and this here from the Kuwaiti newspaper) that give me hope. Now its your job, Mr. President, to turn around and give that same hope to your people.

I wish you much luck - and I’m eager to see your success,
Shira Dukiyum