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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (17411)	1/26/2006 6:46:39 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Bush Says U.S. Won't Deal With Hamas By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer Jan 26 2006 WASHINGTON President Bush said Thursday that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemaking without renouncing violence, and he reiterated that the United States will not deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to exist. Bush urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to remain in office after Wednesday's stunning Hamas victory over Abbas' Fatah faction in Palestinian elections. "If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you're not a partner in peace, and we're interested in peace," Bush told reporters at a news conference. Bush called the election results a "wake-up call" to the old guard Palestinian leadership, many of whom are holdovers from the days of Yasser Arafat. Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "our position on Hamas has therefore not changed." Hamas "cannot have one foot in politics and another in terror," Rice said from the State Department via video hookup to the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland. Rice spoke shortly after Palestinian voters rejected the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast peacemaking into question. "Palestinian people have apparently voted for change, but we believe their aspirations for peace and a peaceful life remain unchanged," she said. Rice said those goals will require renunciation of violence and terrorism and acceptance of Israel's right to exist side-by-side with a Palestinian state. "Anyone who wants to govern the Palestinian people and do so with the support of the international community has got to be committed to a two-state solution," Rice said. "You can't have a peace process if you're not committed to the right of your partner to exist." She predicted that the world will "speak clearly" on those points over the next day or so, but did not outline just how the United States plans to proceed. Hamas has taken responsibility for dozens of suicide attacks on Israel over the past five years, but has largely observed a cease-fire since the election of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president last year. "Hamas is a terrorist organization, which means they believe it is their right to murder women, children and innocent civilians to achieve their goals," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "It is unrealistic, unwise and even immoral to ask Israel to sit down with a government that contains people who have such beliefs. No other country would, why should Israel?" The initial speculation Wednesday _ as Hamas ran neck-and-neck with Abbas' Fatah Party _ was that Hamas would steer clear of a post involving peacemaking efforts and would be consigned to domestic ministries such as education. But Hamas' defeat of Fatah could change that calculation in a way that might put pressure on Washington to find a way to both uphold aversion to the militant group and also promote peacemaking. For years, even though he was the unquestioned leader of the Palestinians, the United States declined to deal with _ or even have contact with _ Yasser Arafat. Under U.S. pressure in the Reagan administration, Arafat made a statement renouncing terrorism, and the United States went on to deal with him in Mideast peace efforts. But Bush, deciding that Arafat was corrupt and linked to persistent violence against Israel, cut him off, and did not invite him to the White House. Rice is due to meet in London on Monday with U.N., Russian and European leaders as the so-called "Quartet" evaluates the results and tries to decide how to proceed with peacemaking efforts. townhall.com

To: Sully- who wrote (17411)	1/27/2006 12:04:30 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Voting for terror Power Line With the election results yesterday in the Palestinian Authority, Arafatistan frankly joins the Axis. The Jerusalem Post reports: "Mashal calls Abbas to inquire about partnership." Post editor David Horovitz describes the outcome as an "earthquake," writing: "The era of Fatah is over. The Islamists are in control." Horovitz properly counsels against wishful thinking or the loss of clarity about the fundamental nature of Hamas: Some may seek comfort in the belief that an ascent to government could prompt a greater sense of responsibility, a move to moderation. But Hamas's intolerance is based on a perceived religious imperative. No believing Muslim, in the Hamas conception, can be reconciled to Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. To deny that, for Hamas, is blasphemy. And that is the ideology to which the Palestinian people, for whatever reason and by their own free hand, have just tied their fate. That is the guiding ideology with which Israel and the West will now have to grapple. PAUL adds: No one should be surprised by the results of this election. The Palestinian people remain committed to the destruction of Israel and, failing that, to subjecting Israelis to an unrelenting campaign of terror. In this election, Fatah represented a trimming back of these aspirations; Hamas represented their affirmation. If the key issue had been Fatah corruption, Hamas would have downplayed any differences between the two organizations with respect to relations with Israel. It did not. Israel brought about the downfall of Fatah by marginalizing Arafat and forcing his successor into an accommodationist mode. Now it will have to prove that Hamas can't succeed against Israel where Fatah failed. For starters, Israel must select a leader who understands what needs to be done. The first test should be the extent to which the various candidates demonstrate their recognition of what yesterday's election means. UPDATE: In an excellent column for the Ottawa Citizen, Barry Rubin writes: "Hamas won't change its stripes." canada.com (Thanks to reader Malcolm Smordin.) powerlineblog.com jpost.com jpost.com