Well, the erstwhile partner and winner of the 2006 Palestinian elections Hamas has said their piece.
Hamas who is negotiating with the Palestinian Authority run by President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government just upped the ante wrt to negotiations saying choose Unity or Peace with Israel.
Senior Hamas negotiator Mahmoud Zahar told Maan News as much saying:
Hamas who is negotiating with the Palestinian Authority run by President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government just upped the ante wrt to negotiations saying choose Unity or Peace with Israel.
Senior Hamas negotiator Mahmoud Zahar told Maan News as much saying:
"The changing factors around us are in our favor ... they are not in favor either of Fatah's project or those with whom it cooperates, including the Israeli enemy," he said, watched by his bodyguards.
"It all depends on Fatah's policy now," Zahhar said. "If Fatah wants the (unity) agreement to be accomplished, we will be ready. If they do not want, then we are sitting here and the future is ours."
Zahar, bouyed by the victory of Islamist parties in Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Al-Nour parties) also had this to say in direct contradiction to Hamas' Damascus based leader Khaled Meshaal:
Zahhar said Hamas was not prepared to relinquish the fight against Israel under any circumstances. He denied that Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, based in Damascus, had endorsed Abbas's concept of non-violent "popular resistance" against Israel.
"Popular resistance includes both Fatah agenda, which speaks of protests only, and the Hamas position which advocates gathering all means of military armament for the sake of self-defense," Zahhar said.
He foresaw a rising tide of Islamism in the Arab world which would strengthen the Palestinian cause.Meanwhile Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh on a visit to the new government of Tunisia had this to say:
"We promise you that we will not cede a single part of Palestine, we will not cede Jerusalem, we will continue to fight and we will not lay down our arms," he said. He urged "the people of the revolution to fight the army of al-Quds" as Jerusalem is known in Arabic.
"To Tunisia we say: 'It is us today who are going to build the new Middle East'." Haniya insisted "We will not recognize Israel," as the crowd chanted: "Death to Israel", "The Tunisian revolution supports Palestine", and "The army of Mohammed is back". Some wiped their feet on the Star of David.Greeting Haniyeh's visit in Tunisia were a band of anti-Semites who chanted:
Islamist activists welcoming Haniya were heard chanting slogans like: "Kill the Jews, it is our duty", along with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian messages....
....Videos circulated online showing members of the crowd greeting Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh at the airport on Thursday chanting "kill the Jews" and "crush the Jews." The chants came from Salafists, ultraconservative Muslims that have been making their presence felt in Tunisia recently.This frightened the small Tunisian Jewish community, and prompted the leader of the new Islamist Government in Tunisia to State:
The head of Tunisia's moderate Islamic party condemned Monday anti-Semitic slogans chanted by a handful of ultraconservative Muslims at the arrival of a top Hamas official. "Ennahda condemns these slogans which do not represent Islam's spirit or teachings, and considers those who raised them as a marginal group," Ghannouchi said in a statement.According to Haaretz, Zahar and Haniyeh are seeing:
He foresaw a rising tide of Islamism in the Arab world which would strengthen the Palestinian cause.
"What is coming in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya and currently in Sudan is supportive of the Palestinian cause, not as in the past a strategic supporter of the Israeli occupation," he said.
"What is coming is a thousand times better than in the past. Therefore we have to invest in these achievements by the Arab street for the sake of achieving the fundamental goals of the Palestinian people, the liberation of land and the return of (refugees)," Zahar added.Apparently moderation and peace are not first and foremost (or even last and least) on the Hamas wishlist. The question then is what does this mean for both the Palestinian Unity talks AND for Israeli - Palestinian on-going negotiations in Amman, Jordan.
Just for information it is not only the Islamists who oppose a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestion (PFLP) had this to say about the talks in Amman:
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine warned on Monday that PLO meetings with Israeli envoys were set to harm reconciliation between Palestinian factions, as Hamas reiterated its opposition to the talks.
PLO delegates are due to meet representatives of the Israeli government in the Jordanian capital later on Monday, in the second such talks since last week, called by the international Quartet.But the leftist PFLP, long opposed to negotiations based on the two-state solution, has called the meetings a "grave political mistake," and called on Monday for President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from talks to focus on the fraying reconciliation deal between political rivals Fatah and Hamas.
"Such meetings poison the atmosphere for reconciliation efforts," senior PFLP leader Kayid Al-Ghoul said in a press release.Oh well.... So much for claims that unity would be bring about a peaceful settlement OR that the Palestinian factions give a crap about Peace.
Did this post cut out before you were done? It seems like a cliffhanger there.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, these extremist revanchists, whether Islamist or secular, think that time is on their side, but it is not. Israel is here to stay and the longer it takes them to reconcile with that fact, the longer their own people will live in statelessness.
Whoops, thanks for the heads up.
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