Netanyahu: 'Hamastan' has been created before our eyes
Responding to Hamas' victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that, "The state of 'Hamastan' has been created before our eyes - an Iranian satellite state in the image of the Taliban. It was created in close proximity to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion International Airport. We need to do some soul-searching, because the writing was on the wall. A policy of unilateral withdrawal rewarded Hamas terror."
Earlier Thursday, Likud said that the Hamas victory was a direct result of the disengagement plan and that Palestinians concluded from the Gaza pullout that terror and violence are the means to achieving diplomatic gains.
"The plan by Kadima and Labor for an additional unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank reflects a complete blindness to reality. [Acting Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and Kadima are establishing a Hamas terror state that will be an Iranian offshoot, only a few kilometers from Israeli population centers," according to Likud.
"Today it is clear that when Israel flees, Hamas rises. Olmert and Kadima's continued unilateral withdrawals will harm the personal security of each and every one of us," MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) said.
"Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar should send a large bouquet of flowers to Ehud Olmert, who opted to give up in the war on terror," MK Effi Eitam (National Union) said.
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio that the Israeli government made a grave mistake by allowing the Palestinian parliamentary elections take place with Hamas' participation.
Steinitz described the purported results as an "earthquake," and said they reflected Israel's "tragic failure" in its war against Hamas.
Steinitz, who is chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Israel could have prevented Hamas' success, a terror organization whose goal is to destroy Israel, by preventing the vote from taking place even at the price of a confrontation with the United States.
"These elections contradict the Oslo Agreement and contradict democracy,"
he said. |
