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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas sticks to hard line despite deal with Abbas
2006-06-27
The governing Hamas movement reached a political agreement on Tuesday with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but said it would continue to refuse to recognize Israel.
Well, that didn't take long
Abbas had sought to soften Hamas's hard line toward Israel -- the movement's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state -- in the hope of ending a U.S.-led boycott of the cash-strapped Palestinian government by Western donor nations.

Hamas insisted it was sticking to its "agenda of resistance" against Israel.
"The document included a clear clause referring to the non-recognition of the legitimacy of the Occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, using the Islamist group's term for Israel.
It's in the fine print
The original political document, penned by Palestinians in Israeli jails, implicitly recognized Israel. Palestinian factions have been negotiating amendments to the manifesto, at the heart of a Hamas-Fatah power struggle, for weeks. "All the obstacles were removed and an agreement was reached on all the points of the prisoners' document," Rawhi Fattouh, a senior aide to Abbas, said after factions meeting in Gaza initialed the accord. But with Israel and the Palestinians preparing for a possible Israeli offensive in Gaza following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, there appeared to be little chance agreement over the document could open a path toward peacemaking soon.

Officials close to the negotiations said Abbas, of Fatah, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, drafted a platform accepting a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Such a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be in line with Fatah's recognition of Israel. But Hamas legislator Salah al-Bardaweel told Reuters: "We said we accept a state (in territory occupied) in 1967 -- but we did not say we accept two states."

The deal appeared likely to lead to the cancellation of a July 26 referendum Abbas had scheduled, over Hamas's objections, on the prisoners' document. Such a showdown would have heightened tensions between Fatah and Hamas, whose fighters have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks.

Israel has called the manifesto an internal Palestinian affair and has said it would have no dealings with Hamas until the group recognized its existence, renounced violence and accepted past interim peace deals. "Internal Palestinian politics is interesting but it is really irrelevant. We have a crisis. We have an Israeli serviceman held hostage by a group of terrorists in Gaza," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

Under the accord, Hamas, leading the Palestinian government after an election victory in January, would agree to form a unity administration with Fatah and other factions, officials said before Fattouh made his statement. Hamas had insisted it would head any governing coalition, but it was not immediately clear if this was in the agreement. Islamic Jihad, another militant group, said it still rejected several points in the prisoners' document, including the concept of a Palestinian state limited to the West Bank and Gaza. Some Palestinian sources said the tense security situation, with Israeli armor massing on Gaza's border, had pushed the factions to intensify their efforts to reach agreement.
Posted by:Steve

#2  I don't think that is going to feed the bulldog.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2006-06-27 13:00  

#1  But Hamas legislator Salah al-Bardaweel told Reuters: "We said we accept a state (in territory occupied) in 1967 -- but we did not say we accept two states."

Rantburger's certainly understood this clearly. We know, dear.

Looks like Hamas - Syria wins. Let the war begin. Declare Pals terrorists by government order and include in the WOT.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412   2006-06-27 11:44  

00:01