Well, this was good news:
A meeting was meant to take place on Wednesday in the Grimond Room at Portcullis House, adjoining the House of Commons in London. The planned meeting was titled “Talk with Hamas” and was meant to feature a video link to Damascus.
Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, was supposed to address members of Parliament and journalists via the link, but he failed, due to a technical glitch.
Of course, this isn’t stopping the Hamas propaganda effort from proceeding. But this is good news, too: Hillary Clinton says no deal with the PA if Hamas joins up without renouncing terror. (That would be never.)
She said that “in the event that our offers are either rejected or the process is inconclusive or unsuccessful,” the US was “laying the groundwork for the kind of very tough … crippling sanctions that might be necessary.”
During her testimony, the secretary of state also declared that the US was unwilling to work with a Palestinian unity government with an unreformed Hamas.
“We will not deal with nor in any way fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless and until Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel, and agreed to follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian Authority,” she said.
Clinton added, however, that “we want to leave open the door that that can happen” so the US added a waiver for the funding to flow to a Palestinian unity government if those conditions are met.
“We’re not betting on it,” she noted.
It almost makes you want to root for Palestinian unity. But then, if you’ve been reading this blog at all regularly, you know that Fatah and Hamas will never get along.
So how long you figure it’s going to take Hamas to blame Mossad for the technical glitch?