The fallout from the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement continues, but in reality it's more symbolic than realistic so far.
For his part, President Obama made sure that we know he considers Israel equally responsible for the collapse of the talks, that the Palestinian Authority will continue to get its jirzyah from the American taxpayer and that pressure on Israel by the Obama Administration will continue.
"The fact that recently President Abbas took the unhelpful step of rejoining talks with Hamas is just one of a series of choices that both Israel and the Palestinians have made which are not conducive to solving this crisis," Obama said.
Obama added that his administration would not be deterred by Israel suspending the peace talks on Thursday in response, and would instead continue backing US Secretary of State John Kerry's push to force through a peace deal, reports AFP.
State Department spokesmouth Jen Psaki made sure to continue the theme of mild criticism of Abbas and the PA for linking up with an internationally recognized terrorist group coupled with making sure Israel was blamed equally for the fiasco:
"There have been unhelpful steps from both sides throughout this process, whether it’s settlements or the UN or whatever it may be. So they are both – they have both been guilty of that."
As you can imagine, this kind of nonsense generated a fair amount of fury among insiders in Netanyahu's government, particularly as Netanyahu had allowed himself to be arm twisted into ridiculous concessions to Abbas just to keep the 'process' going,on which more in a bit.
The Israelis ought to realize now that nothing Abbas does is going to get his lawyer and community organizer in the Oval Office to see to it that the PA suffers any significant consequences for this bit of duplicity...and nothing Israel does is ever going to be enough. The White House has taken sides blatantly, just like the EU, and that is simply that.
As a matter of fact, in a separate statement, Psaki claimed that Abbas had talked to Secretary Kerry and told him that the new unity government would be his government and represent his policies. He is said to have promised Kerry that along with recognition of Israel, the future government would abide by past agreements and renounce violence.
“It’s a positive thing,” she said.
According to our own State Department,The Obama Administration is now openly endorsing a government composed of a recognized Terrorist group with the blood of Americans on its hands.Of course they always were, but never this directly, never this blatantly.
Abbas is playing along with this perfectly, to the point where I believe one of my notorious Lil' Birdies on the Palestinian side is correct in telling me that this was planned out between Abbas and the White House before hand. He's even let it be known that his shiny new unity government that includes Hamas is going to announce to the PLO’s Central Committee its 'recognition' of Israel. Recognition as what, of course isn't being mentioned and for that matter, Hamas isn't really playing along anyway.
Speaking to the Palestinian Information Center from Ramallah, top Hamas official Hassan Yousef made it clear that Hamas will not recognize Israel and “will not give up the resistance,” and he also made it clear that Hamas is marching to its own drummer and that international intervention meant nothing.""any interference in Palestinian affairs by outside parties is unacceptable, and we cannot exercise blackmail and dictation."
At the same time, Hamas leader Ra'fat Murra announced in the official Hamas outlet in Lebanon, al-Ajnad, that "The option of negotiations has failed, Palestinian resistance remains the right option".
So is Hamas going to cease firing rockets at Israel from Gaza? Are they going to rescind the Martyr's Oath all Hamas members swear to uphold that calls for genocide? Will they ever really commit to a peace treaty with Israel, no matter what Abbas or his tools like Saeb Erekat or Hanan Ashrawi say? Of course not.
And speaking of Saeb Erekat, the former right fork of Arafat's tongue and nowchief Palestinian negotiator told Sky News in Arabic that Hamas is not a terror organization and never will be.
And then, Erekat added in interview that Hamas is not required to recognize Israel (directly contradicting what Abbas told Kerry), since there are parties in Israel which don’t recognize the state of Palestine. So in other words, just because there are private citizens in Israel who don't recognize the idea of a Palestinian state,it doesn't matter what the Israeli government's official position is..especially since 'Palestine' isn't even a state yet!
One of my favorite Yasser Arafat quotes comes to mind here.."I've killed for my cause. Don't you think I would lie for it?"
Hamas, for their part are not giving away anything much to be part of this unity agreement. They aren't giving up terrorism against Israel, they will still retain control of Gaza, and there's no sign of them allowing Palestinian Authority security forces to return to the Gaza Strip. And there's a good reason for it.
The leaders of Hamas know that Abbas and the Fatah old guard are on their way out. is on the way out in a few months and that they're taking over. So the Beast known as 'Palestine' is going tobe one big happy family again after the elections,only with Hamas in charge as Abbas and the Fatah Old Guard depart to enjoy the money they've stolen and stashed away.
Meanwhile Abbas is enjoying himself. He knows that the Obama Team is going to launch another big diplomatic offensive to get the talks back on track, even though Netanyahu's cabinet, even clueless lefties like Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni voted unanimously to end them. Abbas is sitting back and waiting now and waiting to see what Secretary Kerry and the Obama regime are going to offer him to go back to the table. At that point, he'll simply up the ante again, with brand new demands and pre-conditions he'll expect Kerry to deliver by extracting them from Netanyahu.
And that, of course, is the real problem.
Fatah and Hamas are who they are and they do what they do. But without Netanyahu and others going along with this farce, it would simply end. Believe or not,Netanyahu was reportedly bullied by the Obama Administration right before the Hamas unity pact was announced to gift Abbas and the PLO all sorts of goodies to get the peace talks back under way.
They included permission for the Palestinians to begin wide-scale construction projects in Area C, the part of Judea and Samaria that's under Israeli control right now and where most of the Jews live. Israel was alos apparently willing to agree to a significant release of more convicted terrorist killers and a partial freeze on building in West Bank settlements...all to listen to Abbas say no for another few months.
If this is true (and I haven't been able to confirm it yet) Netanyahu needs to resign immediately. Allowing Fatah to build in Area C while prohibiting Israelis from doing so would not only be despicable hypocrisy, it would endangers the lives of the Israelis living in that area in Jewish communities like Gush Etzion and Ariel. And it would also would signify Netanyahu's connivance in a future ethnic cleansing of that area - and by extension, a re-division of Jerusalem itself. It would symbolize his willingness to move Israel back to the indefensible pre-'67 borders.
If that was Netanyahu's idea about how to proceed, if he was willing to appease Israel's enemies to that extent, he is no longer fit to lead Israel. Frankly, I doubt he's that stupid and this was probably just a trial balloon released by Tzipi Livni, who definitely is that stupid. But in any case, resuming talks right now is not to Israel's benefit in any way, because nothing good will result from it.
What is in Israel's benefit is to unilaterally decide the terms of the divorce - meaning borders and strategic areas to hold - and to impose them.
There's no peace to be had by appeasing the heirs of Arafat, or making any kind of deal with them they won;t hod to anyway. Saeb Erekat is telling the truth for once. The him and the majority of those who call them selves Palestinians, Hamas isn't a terrorist group at all, since they're doing Allah's work by murdering Jews.
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