According to the New York Times‘s Editorial Board, Benjamin Netanyahu “is serious about being a partner for peace” only if he agrees to and implements their plan of action:

If Mr. Netanyahu is serious about being a partner for peace, he will not get in the way of the militant group Hamas entering a Palestinian unity government with the rival Fatah faction — as long as that government is committed to preventing terrorism and accepts past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. He will recognize that the United States has its own interests in diplomacy with Syria, Iran and the Palestinians — and allow the Obama administration the freedom to pursue them. He also will not start a preventive war with Iran.

But their suggestions — surely satisfactory to the so-called “pro-Israel, pro-peace movement”— are asinine, and would be destructive to both Israelis and Palestinians if faithfully implemented.

They argue Hamas should be allowed to enter into a “unity government” with Fatah, as long as “that government is committed to preventing terrorism and accepts past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The problem is, of course, Hamas is a terrorist group. To call Hamas a “militant group,” as the Times does, is to ponder an alternative universe. So, in order for the suggestion to be implemented, Hamas would have to change its own mission and goal — the destruction of the Jewish State — to what the Times supposes its mission to be.

There’s another problem: Hamas and Fatah are engaged in a violent—but under-reported—civil war. And yet another: neither Hamas nor Fatah recognizes the state of Israel.

The Times should untangle its own analytic knots before prescribing a plan for Middle East peace.

UPDATE: Commenting on this same editorial, Carl in Jerusalem uncovers something even more disturbing:

But the Times’ most hideous demand is the penultimate one. The Times calls on Netanyahu to “recognize that the United States has its own interests in diplomacy with Syria, Iran and the Palestinians — and allow the Obama administration the freedom to pursue them.” For anyone who missed it, the implication is that Israel, via the mysterious and powerful ‘Israel Lobby,’ controls the United States and can prevent the Obama administration from pursuing its own interests in diplomacy with Syria, Iran and the ‘Palestinians.’ Does the Times really believe that? If so, American Jewry had better start packing its bags.

A tip of the hit to commenter FinanceDoc.