Blaming the victims

This article from the Houston Chronicle argues that Israel and the US should work with a Hamas dominated PA, not against it. Nothing new there except this appears in an American paper:

Israel's refusal to deal with the Palestinians' chosen representatives and attempts to isolate the Palestinian national movement are not new. Israel has worked for decades to drum into our consciousness the notion that "there is no partner for peace."

This places the blame for its military occupation on the shoulders of the very people it occupies. The strategy was evident in the 1980s when Israel refused to negotiate with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. During the last five years of so-called peace negotiations, the onus has been on the Palestinians to "reform." A hallmark of President Bush's policy toward the Palestinians has been the demand for the development of transparent, democratic institutions. Democracy is a worthy goal, and one that Palestinians have long struggled for themselves. Yet, the idea that democracy is somehow a litmus test for Palestinian independence obfuscates the real issue at hand — the continued military occupation, denial of equal rights and dispossession of a people.

Elsewhere in the same paper an article condemns Hamas's words and ignores Israel's deeds.