Half of Israelis favor talks with Hamas: pollWed Dec 21, 2005 10:32 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Half of Israelis would favor peace talks with the Palestinian Islamic militant group, Hamas, despite its calls to destroy the Jewish state, a poll published on Wednesday showed.
Israel regards Hamas -- behind scores of suicide bombings -- as a terrorist group and says it must be disarmed as well as giving up its vow to eliminate Israel. Israel objects to Hamas participation in a January Palestinian parliamentary election.
Fifty percent of Israelis polled in mid-December by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would support talks with Hamas if this was necessary to reach a peace deal, while 47 percent would be opposed, said Yaacov Shamir, who conducted the survey.
Shamir said Israelis had not grown more accepting of Hamas, but understand the group's popularity among Palestinians is growing.
Hamas has made a strong showing in Palestinian municipal ballots in recent months. Opinion polls put its strength at around 30 percent ahead of the January 25 parliamentary election.
"This shows an Israeli awareness of what is going on in the Palestinian public, that Hamas is serious about its intention to play a role in Palestinian politics," Shamir said. "We cannot really prevent this, and the public understands that."
He compared Israel's objections to dialogue with Hamas to the Jewish state's decades-long ban on talks with the Palestinian Liberation Organization before a 1993 peace deal.
"The process will be shorter this time", Shamir said.
Hamas is officially opposed to talks with Israel, but some leaders have recently suggested they might not be ruled out.
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I'm sure signing a "peace treaty" "is" gonna "solve" the Middle East problem.