Right-wing lawmaker Yuval Steinitz of the hardline Likud Party said that's where Israel went wrong. "This is a tragic failure in the war against Hamas," Steinitz told Israel Radio. "We alone let elections take place with the participation of a terror group that calls for our destruction."
World leaders, uneasy at the prospect of a Hamas-led Palestinian government, immediately exerted pressure on the Islamic militants to recognize Israel and renounce violence as a precondition for ties. But Israeli politicians were skeptical of the world's resolve.
"After Hamas is elected, can the world not talk to them?" former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio. "The world will speak to them saying that they were elected in a democratic process ... I think if we had prevented them from participating in the elections this wouldn't have happened."
And when they have a state? Things wil be different?
Lawmaker Ephraim Sneh of the dovish Labor Party said Israel was in part to blame for Hamas' victory by not making concessions to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that would have boosted his standing in the Palestinian public.
Ah, so the son of the Communist Party leader during the 1950s and 1960s blames Israel for not making more concessions that would and will make Hamas' task even easier? Abbas, the Holocaust revisionist, the terror chieftan in a suit, never denounced Hamas' terror out of moral values but always whether or not in benefitted the Palestinian cause.
Commentators have interpreted the Hamas victory as a protest against Fatah's corruption and inability to restore law and order to chaotic Palestinian streets.
Perhaps. To a certain degree. But that doesn't make a difference when it comes to terror in which the Hamas, the Fatah and the Islamic Jihad all cooperated together.
While Hamas didn't pose an existential threat to Israel, "it's a threat to the normal life of Israel if at our doorstep we have a terrorism state," Sneh told CNN.
The upheaval in the Palestinian Authority could sway Israeli elections by fanning hardline sentiments.
Most definitely. Perhaps our only sane hope.
Political analyst Hanan Crystal said Hamas' election win would be the main issue in Israel's March elections, predicting it could hurt center-left parties and benefit the hawkish Likud, which opposed Israel's summer withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Likeliest to suffer is Kadima, the centrist party Ariel Sharon formed in November, after breaking away from Likud, to seek more leeway in setting Israel's final borders. Kadima maintained a strong lead in pre-election polls, even after Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke.
If our Likud and National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu leaders can utilize this development, we may yet save the state from its politicians, commentators, weak military commanders and defeatist intellectuals.
Likud's leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that Hamas' dramatic election victory would turn the Palestinian Authority into a radical, Islamic regime.
"It doesn't matter how much makeup they put on Hamas, it will remain the same Hamas," Netanyahu said. "We can't reach understandings with Hamas because their goal is to destroy Israel."
Yes but shouldn't he be doing more in this regard and not promise further withdrawals that have no effect on Hamas?
Most Israelis remained skeptical of Hamas' changing its ways, despite its adherence to a year-old truce, but some said the group's electoral victory could lead to a further drop in violence.
"I believe Hamas would like to be part of the political process and will be willing to make some concessions, at least on the declarative level," said Joseph Nevo, a professor of Middle East History at Haifa University.
This is hogwash (you'll excuse the unkosher reference.
Left-wing lawmaker Ran Cohen told Army Radio that victory could make Hamas more pragmatic. "If the Hamas wants to talk about a solution of two states for two peoples, the significance is essentially recognizing the state of Israel, and that means we need to talk, first and foremost about stopping the terror," he said.
This is (censored expletives).
Israel Hasson, a former top Shin Bet official, agreed.
"As soon as Hamas talks to us, it's not Hamas any longer," he said.
No, it still is. The Islamic tradition allows lying and deceit in overcoming your enemy.
===========================================
And then you have this AP report:
Analysis: Hamas' Showing May Improve Peace
By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 25, 6:27 PM ET
Hamas' strong showing in Palestinian parliamentary elections will encourage Israel's go-it-alone approach to Mideast peacemaking if Israeli officials feel they have no one to talk to on the other side.
But if the elections pull the Islamic militants off the streets and into the corridors of power — shifting their focus from terror to governance — prospects for peace could be improved.
"If this sharing of power will satisfy Hamas, then they will have less of a need to use military means to be heard and that could possibly be good for the peace process," said Daoud Kuttab of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.
Hamas has shown little willingness to renounce its charter calling for Israel's destruction or to give up its weapons, despite its decision to uphold a cease-fire declared a year ago.
Did you notice that big IF?
But the point is that if the Hamas knows (and it surely knows) that their violence and terror have brought them this far and that both Israeli and foreign "experts" keep explaining them away as some social welfare group that has an occasional rumble now and then, why not keep going? After all, as everybody seems to acknowledge, its goal is to destroy Israel just like Iran's president makes clear.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment