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Since its inception, Israel has battled enemies attacking it militarily. Now, nearing its 60th year of existence, the nation must fight the mendacity of a PR-savvy Hamas.

By PERRY B. NEWMAN May 4, 2008

On May 8, 2008, the modern state of Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary, an event marking the establishment of a democratic and prosperous nation that has throughout its history been prepared to live in peace with its neighbors.

But such is the nature of modern communications and our open society, that the leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza and which nearly all nations regard as a terrorist group, can publish an Op-Ed piece in Sunday papers around the world, denouncing Israel and United States' policies that support Israel. It's an Op-Ed piece that cloaks Hamas' extremist intentions in language calibrated to offer the appearance of moderation.

The history of modern Israel begins with the passage in 1947 of General Assembly Resolution 181 by the United Nations General Assembly. While many critics of Israel focus on the creation of the Jewish state by an act of the United Nations, in fact that seminal U.N. vote established not merely Israel, but two countries, one Jewish and one Arab, living side by side on land that had previously been administered by Great Britain.

Resolution 181 empowered citizens in the inchoate Arab and Jewish states to vote, authorized each state to form militias to preserve internal order and protect the integrity of their borders, guaranteed civil, political and religious freedom to all citizens, provided freedom of movement for all citizens within their respective states, and afforded access to Jerusalem, subject to security considerations.

On May 14, 1948, when, pursuant to the administrative processes outlined in the Resolution, Israel declared its independence, its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared, "We extend the hand of peace and good-neighborliness to all the States around us and to their people, and we call upon them to cooperate in mutual helpfulness with the independent Jewish nation in its Land. The State of Israel is prepared to make its contribution in a concerted effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East."

On May 15, 1948, however, the armies of four Arab states neighboring Israel -- Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq -- having been on the losing side of the U.N. vote, attacked the fledgling state. Confident of an imminent victory, they had inflamed the local population of what was to be the Arab state contemplated in Resolution 181 and encouraged them to leave their homes and fields, assuring them that once the battle was won, they could return to the land they considered "Palestine."

As everyone knows, however, things did not go precisely according to plan. Somehow the Israelis repelled the attackers and established dominion over the land.

Defeated militarily, misled and ill-advised by the leaders of neighboring Arab states, then, it is no wonder that on the very day that modern Israelis celebrate their state, millions of Palestinians bemoan the "Naqba" or catastrophe that befell them.

Indeed, the intervening 60 years have not been kind to Palestinians, many of whom continue to reside in refugee camps in Lebanon, or have made lives for themselves in other Arab countries. Others have chosen to remain in the West Bank and in Gaza, where they have either actively supported or have been victims of Palestinian leadership that believes it can improve the lives of the citizenry by committing acts of terror.

Israel, however, has long since joined the ranks of the prosperous, educated and advanced countries in the world and, sad to say for many Palestinians, has moved on.

Those facts don't serve Hamas, whose legitimacy, if such a word may be used in this context, depends upon continuing exploitation of the Naqba as the Palestinian national narrative. Without a demonized enemy such as Israel and its enabler, the United States, to attack, Hamas is bereft of both message and mission.

In fact, Hamas openly acknowledges that it has only a few tools at its disposal: terrorist...