I have been following and agonizing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since I was about nine, and I’ve gotten good at changing my mind about every aspect of it. I changed it again after I heard from Dr. Tamimi, and here’s why. Dr. Tamimi made me realize two things about Hamas: one, they’re not going away and, two, they are the legitimately elected legislative majority for the Palestinians.

For those of you who need a reminder of who I’m talking about, Hamas is a political organization in the Palestinian territories that is also responsible for 350 attacks against Israeli armed personnel and civilians since 1993. Hamas campaigns for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state, where Jews and other Israelis would be free to live, but under an Islamic government. They are shunned by the international community because they refuse to acknowledge that Israel has the right to exist, and for their terrorist tactics against Israelis.

Here’s the thing: for us to refuse to report what Hamas has to say (as opposed to only reporting the bombings they are responsible for) is to tell a lot of Palestinians that we don’t care about their voices. Though Hamas’s military tactics are deplorable (as are the Israelis’), they have been elected to the government of the Palestinian people democratically, and for us to refuse to talk to them is to marginalize everyone who voted for them, not just the terrorists among them.

So what does Hamas have to say? Here’s what Dr. Tamimi says, and I think it’s worth listening to: Hamas is interested in living in peace with Jews in their shared holy land. Hamas wants an indefinite cease fire with Israel, and they want it on these conditions: release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, right of return to the homes they left in Israel, and Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. Until they get these concessions, they will have to continue to attack Israel, because they believe that otherwise they will be forgotten about. Most of the current members of Hamas do not support its 19-year-old anti-Semitic charter.

Hamas is not going to get an Islamic state where Israel is now, nor would that be a better idea than the current Jewish state. Nor are they going to get Israel to agree to their terms; each of those three conditions would challenge Israel’s identity and security. But Hamas is just the current manifestation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, which has been around since before Israel was founded in 1948. They aren’t going away. So how can we acknowledge their right to speak for many Palestinians while discouraging their terrorist activities and encouraging peace in a holy land?

I have come to believe that the best long-term, sustainable solution is a secular, constitutional replacement of the state of Israel. While this secular state would not satisfy Hamas’s end goal, it might indeed be better able than the current Jewish state to meet their requirements for cease fire. And those conditions do hold within them reasonable ideas and just reparations for the Palestinian people. In my next column I will try to explain why I have come to these conclusions, and to address the Israeli side of the conflict.