Not ever. From an interview in the Saudi daily Aljazeera in April, Ismail Haniyeh said:
“As far as we’re concerned, the issue of recognition of Israel has been settled once and for all. It has been settled in our political literature, in our Islamic thought and in our Jihadist culture, on which we base our moves. Recognition of Israel is out of the question. We have been advocating the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees. In exchange for all that, we will declare a truce, but no recognition of Israel.”
“The concept of a Palestinian state is clear in our view: ‘Palestine’ within its borders and its legitimate historical heritage. However, we don’t have a problem with a unity government in this phase. We are in agreement with our brother Palestinians and Arabs about establishing a Palestinian state within the ’67 borders with Jerusalem as the capital. We are telling everyone that we have an objective for this phase, as well as a national goal.”
Not that this is new to any of my regular readers. I’ve written versions of this post many, many times.
What’s new is that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs seems to finally be managing a decent publicity push so that the world can see Hamas for what it is: An organization of murderers and terrorists whose goal is the destruction of Israel.
When do the loser’s in war have the ability to declare their terms of victory and impose those terms on the Victor?
They do not see themselves as the losers in the war, but having lost some battles within a war that is still continuing. Just as the allies in the second phase of the first World War called for the enemy to surrender, and the enemy called for the allies to surrender, so too these murderers are calling for their victims to surrender just like a mugger tells his victim to hand over the cash even if the victim fights back.
hen there will never be a Palestinian Arab state.
Now this can’t be right. In this very morning’s New York Times a retrospective on the Six Days War says very clearly that Fatah, who are moderates, wants to negotiate a two-state solution with Israel. Israeli centrists join with them in this modest hope, but Israeli rightist want to maintain the settlements and oh, yes, Hamas wants to destroy Israel.
Ismail Haniyeh
With any luck he’ll be the next failed suicide bomber.