Deepak Chopra: How to Defeat Hamas -- Face Up to the Truth

Several truths have been buried beneath these crisscrossing agendas.

1. Hamas has no power to destroy Israel.
2. Moderate Arabs and almost all Sunnis are opposed to Hamas's politics.
3. The deeper issue is about Iran and its desire to become a dominant force in the Middle East by backing Shia extremists.
4. The Palestinian question will ultimately be solved through politics and economics, not war.
5. Tolerating the intolerant is a chronic problem in every society and every age. It must be managed as best as society can, the way it deals with crime and drugs, the other chronic ills.

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But no form of Islamic extremism will end until moderate Muslims stand up for their religion. The rich Arab countries feel that they can afford to bribe the terrorists to leave them alone, or to suppress them with secret police and the army should they get out of hand. Poor Muslim countries have little ability to cure the endemic poverty and ignorance that is the seedbed of terrorism. The only solution is long-term and self-generated. No one can extirpate extremism from without. The U.S. and its global allies can only police the problem for the foreseeable future.