Despite being officially dedicated to "liberating all of Paleostine," in recent days Hamas leaders have spoken of accepting a Paleostinian state in the 1967 borders, effectively alongside Israel.
| Sure, but they mean the pre-June, '67 borders, which even the U.N. thingies said at the the time were unsustainable. |
Hamas "agrees to the the establishment of a Paleostinian state within 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, without settlers and without giving up the right of return," he said.
| In other words, the Palestinians get Palestine plus sending four million hate-filled Palestinians to live among the seven million Israelis (one million of whom are Arabs) within Israel. What they accept -- tacitly -- is the temporary existence of the Jewish state until it's destroyed from within. How clever those Hamasniks are, to be sure. |
| "Initially" being the key word of that sentence. The Ma'an journalist is clever, too |
And while Hamas has indicated it would support such a position in the past, such public, high profile endorsements give it added gravitas.
"There is a consensus on it among the majority of Paleostinian political forces, which can be the basis on which to build," Mash'al said, calling for the development of a "common vision."
But a tacit nod to Israel's existence is not enough for Tel Aviv, which has said it will not have any dealings with a Paleostinian government that embraces Hamas unless it renounces violence and explicitly recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.
"If [Paleostinian] national unity is unity for peace, then we would be the first to support it," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
in Gay Paree.
"But if it's unity to move away from peace, pursue the battle for Israel's eradication, then obviously we oppose it and so should everyone else."
Netanyahu has been meeting European leaders in a bid to convince them not to support a unilateral declaration of statehood from the Paleostinians and to oppose the unity deal for co-opting Hamas.
Some European leaders, including Sarkozy, have warned that they might recognize Paleostinian statehood without waiting for a comprehensive peace deal, and a UN resolution to confirm it.
"If Hamas adopted positions of peace in the unity government I would say great, let's negotiate," Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN. "But in fact the opposite has happened."
European leaders reportedly told Netanyahu they endorsed the conditions for dealing with Hamas -- first laid out by
Quartet... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy....
of the United States, the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
, the European Union and Russia.
But they also indicated they were willing to give the new Paleostinian government time to prove itself.
Mash'al rejected Netanyahu's stance, saying the Israeli leader was using it as another excuse to avoid real peace talks.
"When we were divided Netanyahu did not give Abu Mazen [Abbas] or the Paleostinian Authority anything and I am sure that after the unity he will give us nothing," he told AFP.
Peace talks between Israel and Abbas ground to a halt weeks after the began in September when Israel refused to renew a partial halt on West Bank settlement construction.
The Paleostinians said they would not continue talks as long as Israel was building on land they want for a promised state.
"We have nothing to lose and we don't expect anything else from Netanyahu," Mash'al said.