People who hate the very idea of peace

Brilliant.

By Bradley Burston on Haaretz.com

You know them. The people who come out every time there's any chance of anything resembling a move toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians. You know their simmering rage, their triumphant condescension, their propensity to call anyone who opposes them, at best, a wishful thinker, at worst, a dangerous traitor.

They are people for whom the very idea of peace ignites a passionate hatred. It is, more often than not, directed against people on their own side of the Jewish-Arab divide.

They will tell you that this peace, any peace, is fictitious, virtual, a fantasy, a sham. They will tell you that for true peace, you need not give up a thing.

They will tell you that this is not their idea. It is God's idea.

It is God's will that their side have everything, own everything, all the land, all of the Land, and that the other side should see that, understand that, accept that. Live with it. Or live somewhere else.

You know these people only too well. In a moment, you will see them on the bottom of this page.

They are the very first to reject the idea that there is anything resembling symmetry between extremists on the two sides. They are also the very first to illustrate that symmetry.

You don't have far to look. On Monday in Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum declared that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was promoting a "failed and dangerous" policy that undermined Palestinian unity.

"The Palestinian people's history has not seen a worst era than that of Abu Mazen as president," he said, again referring to Abbas.

A few hours later in Jerusalem, MK Zvi Hendel was addressing a rally of the Yesha settlers council, also protesting the Annapolis conference. "I'm very sorry to say we have a weak and very dangerous prime minister."

"Never before has a leader posed such a danger to the people of Israel.
There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal, and with Olmert wounded from all the police investigations he is weak enough to divide Jerusalem, free murderers and load them up with arms on their way out."

Jump cut to Gaza. Mahmoud Zahar, a founding leader of Hamas, is speaking to a rally of 2,000 people strongly opposed to Annapolis. "Anyone who stands in the face of resistance or fights it or cooperates with the occupation against it is a traitor," he says, in a clear reference to Abbas.

"The Land of Palestine ... is purely owned by the Palestinians," senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said in a speech. "No person, group, government or generation has the right to give up one inch of it."

Dissolve to Jerusalem, where settler leader Shaul Goldstein is speaking to a parallel rally.

"The people of Israel did not give you a mandate to give away its property and what belongs to it," he says.

Fade to Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh, seen as the more moderate leader of Hamas, tells the crowds "We would prefer to die than give up the land of Palestine. We will not give up one grain of the land of Palestine, and we will never recognize Israel."

Final cut to demonstration in Jerusalem's Paris Square. A sign reads "There was never a Palestinian people."

There you are. Repeat after me:

Not one inch.

You have no right.

Anyone who gives away the property of our people is a dangerous traitor.

It belongs to us, all of it.

Jerusalem is ours in its entirety.

The land is ours alone, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.

Any act is just in defense of our right to our land.

Our case, our cause is entirely, objectively just. Theirs is a flat lie.

A no to compromise is a yes to self-defense.

Peace is an illusion.

Don't even think about it.