An Israeli agreement with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on a new Arab state within Israel's current borders will convince Hamas to renounce violence and recognize Israel, American National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told reporters.
An Israeli-PA agreement will "open the door for peace between Israelis and Palestinians," he said. "At that point, President Abbas will be able to go to the people in Gaza and say, you have a choice: You can have the kind of life that you have under the oppression, really, of Hamas…or you can be part of a Palestinian state, which is what we want and what Palestinians want. And at that point, the people of Gaza will have a choice to make. And in some sense, Hamas will have a choice to make. It is a pretty simple formula: One, turn their back on terror... Secondly, Hamas has been told you need to recognize the right of Israel to exist." He added that the door is open to Hamas but "they have not walked through it."