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What Lies Beneath Hamas' Rhetoric: What the West Needs to Hear

Gabrielle Rifkind, March 2006

The West's current "conditions-led" approach to Hamas may be undermining the best chance for establishing a stable Palestinian society and a path towards peace and democracy in the region. However unpalatable it may seem, the West needs to engage in "conditions-free" dialogue with the Hamas leadership in order to discover common ground which will build the foundations for a long-term disengagement from violence on both sides.

Oxford Research Group has participated in a series of meetings that have been organised by Conflicts Forum in order to bring the US and Europeans together with leading Islamist movements from across the Middle East and the Muslim World. This paper is based on a visit to meet the leadership of Hamas in Beirut in February 2006 with Conflicts Forum immediately after their election success.