WHEELING — Rabbi Joshua Lief of Wheeling’s Temple Shalom is hopeful that real peace will be reached between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, but he believes the only way lasting peace will happen is with the dismantling of Hamas.

“All of us have to agree as a community of nations that terrorism cannot be justified, that a group that calls for the death and destruction of their neighbors is not a genuine partner for peace, and that every person — Jews, Christians, Muslims, Israelis, Palestinians– absolutely have the right to self-determination and the right to live side by side with their neighbors in peace,” Lief said.

“Hamas opposes all of that,” he continued. “They have to be removed and defeated.”

The first steps of a peace process between Israel and Hamas, which have been locked in a bruta

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