JERUSALEM -- Efraim Halevy, former chief of Israel''s Mossad intelligence agency, spent three decades in clandestine service, sworn to defend the Jewish state against enemies such as Hamas, the Islamist
group that overran the Gaza Strip in June.
Now Mr. Halevy is speaking the unspeakable about Hamas: It is time, he says, to negotiate with the movement''s leaders -- the same men his former agency and his nation have targeted for assassination.
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returns here today for the first
time since the Gaza rout complicated American ambitions to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Bush administration remains opposed to anyone engaging with the Islamist group. Among Israelis, Mr. Halevy''s words amount to political heresy. Most mainstream politicians don''t speak of negotiating with the group.
But Mr. Halevy, 73 years old, is part of a small band of public figures who now say that, because of Hamas''s growing clout, it is becoming impossible to avoid such a dialogue. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell joined the group in a recent interview with National Public Radio.
For talks to take place, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would have to back them -- and members of his cabinet remain vehemently opposed. Negotiating with Hamas would also require Israel to go against the wishes of the U.S., its most important ally.
But the dialogue option is receiving renewed attention amid widespread doubts about the viability of the Bush administration''s latest plan for dealing with the Palestinians. The Gaza takeover effectively split the Palestinians into Gaza, controlled by Hamas, and the West Bank, politically dominated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the more secular Fatah party and his appointed prime minister, Salam Fayad.
In response, the White House has rolled out what it calls a "West-Bank-first" strategy. It envisions financial, political and diplomatic support for Mr. Abbas in an effort to improve West Bank life so dramatically that Palestinians will be wooed away from Hamas in both enclaves. At the same time, Washington plans to work with Israel to further isolate Hamas in Gaza, a policy that prohibits contact with the group.
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