A year ago, any commentator on Israel with half a brain said that the world would ultimately deal with Hamas, even if Hamas didn’t actually change its stance in the least.
Yep. It’s begun.
Earlier Saturday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said his country would re-establish political and economic relations with the new Palestinian government, and the European Union welcomed the government’s formation but said a resumption of aid would depend on an assessment of the new cabinet’s platform and actions.
“The Presidency of the EU welcomes the formation of a Palestinian Government of National Unity pursuant to the agreement reached in Mecca on 8 February 2007, which lays the foundation for Palestinian reconciliation,” a statement issued by EU president Germany said.
“The Presidency of the EU recalls the readiness of the EU to work with and to resume its assistance to a legitimate Palestinian government adopting a platform reflecting the Quartet principles. The EU will carefully assess the platform and actions of the new government and its ministers,” it said.
The Norwegian foreign minister said the Hamas-Fatah coalition was taking steps toward complying with international demands.
“Norway will thus on this basis re-establish political and economic relations with the Palestinian government,” he said.
Please note the complete absence of any fulfillment of the three conditions, which are to renounce violence, recognize the existence of Israel, and adhere to previous agreements. But that’s okay, because Hamas says they really, really, really will think about it.
“Norway expects the Palestinian authorities to respect basic international standards as regards compliance with previously concluded agreements, renunciation of violence and recognition of Israel’s right to exist,” Stoere said.
He also called on Israel to “take a constructive approach to the unity government, for example by releasing withheld Palestinian revenues from taxes and fees and by increasing the freedom of movement for the Palestinian population.”
Stoere said Norway would deal with the new Palestinian government but “upholds its demands on Hamas as an organization.”
You see? Hamas applies a fig leaf, and the world says, “See? They’re no longer naked genocidal lunatics, they put a fig leaf over the problem!”
And the media is working overtime in its job as palestinian waterboy. Get a load of this crap from AP:
Mixed messages emerged on Saturday from the political platform the new government announced, and from the speeches leaders of the governing factions made to parliament. But, in sum, they reflected a softening of Hamas’ stance toward Israel.
Presenting the government’s program to parliament, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said the governing alliance would work “first and foremost to establish an independent Palestinian state,” with disputed Jerusalem as its capital, on lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.He said the Palestinians maintained the right to resist occupation, but would also seek to widen a truce with Israel, now limited to the Gaza Strip.
Once again, “resistance” is a codeword for war. It means they maintain the “right” to lob missiles into Israel on a daily basis, to perform suicide bombings, shoot, stone, and stab Israelis anywhere, anytime—and the AP calls this a “softening” of their stance.
It is not. It is exactly the same stance they have uttered since before they took office. It is the stance that the includes the destruction of Israel in their charter.
It is an absolutely unchanged stance, used over and over again since last January, and now, as predicted, the world is tired of saying that Hamas isn’t really moderating, so the world is lying to itself and saying that Hamas is “softening” its stance. That it has “moderated” by joining with Fatah in a “unity” government. Please see my previous posts on the invalidity of the Mecca agreement to any form of peace other than to internecine peace. It wasn’t for Israel’s sake that the Saudi’s clamped down hard on the violence in Gaza.
At least the world insisted that Yasser Arafat remove the part of the PLO charter that referred to the destruction of Israel. It’s apparently no longer necessary to request such an action any more; only to request that you think about not killing Jews any more.
It’s enough to make one weep, except, well, tears don’t accomplish squat. Unless they’re drawn on a Hellfire missile and aimed at Ismail Haniyeh. It’s time to resume targeted assassinations again. Hamas is getting stronger.
Here are the exact words Haniyeh used:
Haniyeh said that the government “stresses that resistance in all forms is a legitimate local right of the Palestinian people, granted and secured under all international conventions and agreements.”
“Our people have the right to defend themselves from continuous Israeli aggression,” he added.
That is in no way, shape or form a “softening” of its bloodthirsty position.
By the way, days after the AP reported that aid to the palestinians went up by $200 million in 2006, they’re repeating the lie that the palestinians are starving, broke, and on the edge of financial collapse. Yeah, it’s been that way for, what, forty years now? Awfully fat people, for a group under economic collapse. You might want to compare them with Zimbabwe’s people. Or North Koreans. Or refugees from Darfur.
But no. Nobody cares about them, because they’re not being oppressed by Israel or America.
“The Presidency of the EU welcomes the formation of a Palestinian Government of National Unity pursuant to the agreement reached in Mecca on 8 February 2007, which lays the foundation for Palestinian reconciliation,†a statement issued by EU president Germany said.
So the EU Presidency welcomes the formation of a government intent on genocide of the Jews? I’m glad of the warning.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere should recall what happened last time somebody came first for the Jews. There will be no escape for the Euros if they let the barbarians once again kill the Jews. Nor should there be.
Meryl,
Norway isn`t a member of the European Union and doesn`t speak for us.
Michael,
the important quote is this:
This menas that the only Palestinian government we are going to consider as legitimate will be one that affirms the right of Isreal to exist. Merkel has explcitlly said so before on numerous occasions.
Not true. Only Netanyahu pressed the point, to the general annoyance of most of the world, the Clinton Administration included. Shimon Peres tried to undermine Netanyahu by insisting that the charter had already been amended.
In January 1998, Arafat finally produced a letter listing various articles of the charter as having been partially or wholly nullified, but you won’t find a copy of it in any official document archive. An assembly with no legal authority to amend the charter ratified Arafat’s letter in a ceremony attended by Bill Clinton that December. The entire exercise was a sham, as the PA Information Ministry made clear the following year by publishing, in Arabic and English, a history of the charter that omitted any mention of the 1998 “amndments.”
“Our people have the right to defend themselves from continuous Israeli aggression,â€
I find it odd that a people that has suffered supposed genocide has managed to multiply their population four-fold over the last 50 years. Isn’t genocide supposed to reduce a population?
It’s a lot more than $200 million.