Engaging Hamas: Risks and Opportunities

Overview
Based on a recent USIP report "Hamas: Ideological Rigidity, Political Flexibility" by Paul Scham and Osama abu-Irshaid, this discussion will explore how the international community can detect and take advantage of any willingness by Hamas to compromise, without making ourselves vulnerable to manipulation. How should we interpret this movement, what is the role of Shari’a law in Hama’s political behavior and what are the policy implications of the report?

Cam Simpson, former Jerusalem Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, will moderate an unconventional roundtable format, guiding a conversation among the report’s authors and several experts who will examine this question from different angles. They will challenge the findings of the report in terms of what it means for devising and implementing an effective policy toward Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Speakers
In addition to the authors, the following experts will participate in the debate:

Amjad Atallah
Co-Director, Middle East Task Force
The New America Foundation
Nathan J. Brown
Nonresident Senior Associate, Middle East Program
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
David Makovsky
Senior fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Wayne White
Adjunct Scholar
Middle East Institute
Cam Simpson, Moderator
The Wall Street Journal
 

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Special Report 224_Hamas.pdf (PDF/272.32