Khaled Mashaal, one of the leaders of Hamas, made these moderate remarks about Ehud Olmert’s announcement that Israel will unilaterally set her own borders by 2010:
“Unilateral Israeli disengagement from Palestinian territories is a declaration of war against the Palestinian people,” Mashaal said.
Yep. Sounds like Hamas is moderating to me.
“Olmert’s plan is not a plan of peace, but rather, a declaration of war that would allow Israel to remain in most of the West Bank, maintain the wall of separation and the settlements, refuse any concessions in Jerusalem, and reject the Palestinian right of return,” Mashaal said.
Gee, why would Israel need a barrier? It wouldn’t be to, say, keep out suicide bombers, would it?
This one is the most telling quote, though:
“We are not sort of settlement in our land,” al-Zahar said. “We cannot recognize any sort of these borders, especially the borders created by the wall … separating between our land and our land.”
Let me remind you that Hamas considers all of Israel to be “their” land.
The Islamic Resistance Movement maintains that the land of Palestine is Waqf land given as endowment for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. One should not neglect it or [even] a part of it, nor should one relinquish it or [even] a part of it. No Arab state, or [even] all of the Arab states [together], have [the right] to do this; no king or president has this right nor all the kings and presidents together; no organization, or all the organizations together – be they Palestinian or Arab – [have the right to do this] because Palestine is Islamic Waqf land given to all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection.
Here’s something that I almost agree with him on, though:
“This is a unilateral Israeli move for the sake of its security interests and not for the sake of peace,” the Hamas leader added. “Olmert is making the same mistakes towards the Palestinians (ailing Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon made,” Mashaal added.
I think it is a mistake, because it encourages Hamas. It will allow them to claim victory, and move their rockets closer to Israeli territory. The Gaza pullout was necessary, but it should have been a negotiated pullout, instead of looking like Israel turned tail and ran.
There is also the fact that no matter what Israel sets as her borders, the palestinians will continue to insist that Israel have no borders, and no existence. They don’t want peace. They want Israel.
And, oh yeah: Count on the UN to come across with resolutions condemning Israel for not giving back Jerusalem and other territories. Of course, the UN doesn’t have an anti-Israel agenda every day. Only on days with a “y” in them.
I hope Israel will set it’s own border all the way incorporating Golan, Samaria and Judea and re-take Gaza. Expel the Terrorists and other Arab scum to Egypt or better yet to their kinsmen in Jordan. That would make for a nice stable border between Israel and the neighbors.
I don’t know if that would be a more stable border, but it would be more defensible.
Dear Hamas, Eretz Israel is sacred Jewish land given by the Lord to the Children of Israel, since a time more than two millenia before Muhammed ate that funny-looking mushroom or whatever it was that made him see the Archangel. Get off the Jews’ land. You can go back to Hijaz where you Muslims came from originally, prior to your bouts of unprovoked imperialist aggression.
Oops, no you can’t. Your “Arab Brothers” in the Wahhabist Entity say you can’t become subjects of the Saudi King because your only worth to your “Arab Brothers” is as cannon fodder for their hoped for genocide against the Jews. If you ever accomplished that (the Lord forbid) you would become expendable and your “Arab Brothers” would massacre you Palis in the course of arguing over which Arab tyrant got to misgovern the Levant.
If you Palis had the brains the Lord gave a cherrystone clam you’d make peace with the Israelis and live at peace with them. But you are dumber than a mollusk without a brain.
I think that Sharon judged correctly the type of support he’d get from the US. (Just look what Rice and Wolfensohn did in Gaza)
So he became pragmatic about borders and the logistics and cost of securing Israelis scattered about.
What Olmert is doing is carrying on Sharon’s plan and that means looking at the bigger picture of Hezbollah on the northern border and Iran and not just the Palestinians.
By the way judge it for what it’s worth but it seems that the “Little King’s” son is also not so reliable:
Warfare by Other Means
So there we have it. Israel is to blame no matter what.
Hamas will do what it wants to because it knows that Israel has its hands tied no matter if they were still in Gaza, and easier to make them bleed by attrition, and Hebron and places.
By the way did you know that China had the PA forbid a visit by the Dalai Lama to Bethlehem?
I think the Gaza plan was a stroke of military and political genius.
And Hamas getting elected – even better.
Israel finally has an honest enemy. When Hamas attacks they now have a well defined return address.
Add in the ongoing Pali civil war now in the open and I’d say the retreat was worth it.