The terrorist group Hamas, which has emerged as the most popular political group with Palestinians over the past year, has shifted its position on truce with the Israelis again. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' leader, claims that the truce has Hamas ... well, rather bored:

The leader of Hamas said Friday his group was growing weary of its pact with the Palestinian Authority to avoid conflict with Israel.

"There is no room for truce. I say to our brothers in the [Palestinian] Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation," Khaled Meshaal said in a fiery speech at a rally in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

"I say it loud and clear, we will not enter a new truce. Our people are preparing for a new round in this struggle," Meshaal said.

Hamas much prefers blowing up women and children in pizzerias than the actual work of statecraft, ie, building political consensus and campaigning for support on issues like sewage systems, monetary policy, and so on. That type of work requires erudition and intellect, after all, while strapping a bomb on a teenager only takes a little salesmanship and the complete lack of a soul. Apparently Hamas' terrorist core has discovered what the rest of us already knew -- that they qualify in spades for the latter but by and large lack most of the former.

The excuse du jour results from the hoary triangle offense that the Palestinians have used for years. This time, as is often the case, Islamic Jihad sat out the truce so that they could continue to launch rocket strikes into Israel. Israeli response against IJ then allows the other two terrorist groups -- Hamas and Fatah -- to claim that the Israelis broke the truce and then all three resume their attacks on Israeli civilians. However, this may be the first time that Hamas has come out and admit that without war, they have no reason to exist and no interest in politics other than as a means to conduct the annihiliation of Israel.

We need to press the Europeans to list Hamas as a terrorist group and to cut off their funding once and for all. They will never be a partner for peace -- and neither will the Palestinian Authority which coordinates with both Hamas and IJ to continue the cycle of violence. Until the Palestinians themselves decide they want peace instead of war, they will get what they deserve -- and we should stop holding back the Israelis from walling out the Palestinians on their own terms in the absence of serious attempts to resolve the issues. They have paid for that policy with far more terrorist attacks on civilians than our nation would ever tolerate. We should quit demanding that the Israelis show forebearance any longer.

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