Shoud not a Party running for office be required to denounce a policy of annihilating another state? Should a Party that advocates violence as a policy be allowed to run?

NO, of course not. Do you sincerely mean to tell me that you believe that no political party in history has ever called for all-out war against a neighbor? In fact, many parties have done so. In another fact, it’s a well-known tactic of nationalist political parties in order to stir up fervor for their cause (George Bush did a great job of this regarding Iraq for example). And if you want to disqualify all parties from democratic elections if they advocate violence, well, I’m afraid you’d be disqualifying thousands of them.

Whatever Hamas advocates, it’s a political party of Palestine and Palestinians. If Israel truly wishes a future peace settlement with Palestinians it SHOULD NOT be in the business of determining who runs and who doesn’t run in Palestinian elections. And if Israel does choose to squelch Palestinian democracy (such as it is) then it should just bite the bullet, annex all the Territories and tell the Palestinians that as part of Israel they won’t vote for anything. Then they’d have total control of Palestinian political life.

Shoud not a Party running for office be required to denounce a policy of annihilating another state? Should a Party that advocates violence as a policy be allowed to run?