Your editorial bemoaning reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as complicating, if not dooming, the Mideast peace process misses a key point ("Best of enemies," April 30):
Hamas is a virulently anti-Semitic organization that hates Israel and America. The most recent evidence of Hamas' twisted world view was this week's announcement by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in which he called Osama bin Laden an "Arab holy warrior" and condemned his killing by U.S. forces as "a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood."
For the Palestinian Authority to align itself with a gang of murderous thugs who are openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel only confirms Israeli fears that rather than a two-state solution, the P.A. actually is committed to a two-stage solution that culminates in Israel's disappearance.
This fundamental reality, and not Israeli settlements or the negotiation policies of the Netanyahu government, is the true barrier to peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Jay Bernstein, Baltimore