Israel Matzav

Hamas urges Abu Mazen to declare failure

Two days after President Bush called him a "man of vision" and claimed that he doesn't advocate violence, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is being urged by his 'Palestinian brothers' in Hamas to declare the 'peace process' a failure.

The appeal came in response to Abbas's announcement that he had failed to make progress in his talks with US President George W. Bush last week.

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The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Abbas was "very disappointed" with the results of his talks in Washington last week. "The Americans don't want to make a commitment about the borders of the Palestinian state," said one official. "Nor do they want to put pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion and remove checkpoints [in the West Bank]."

Another official told the Post that in the wake of the US position "it's ridiculous to talk about an agreement between the Palestinians and Israel before the end of Bush's term in office." He added that Bush's failure to exert pressure on Israel was likely to undermine the PA.

"The entire region could be headed toward a political catastrophe because of the collapse of the peace talks," the official cautioned. "Hamas and the extremists are already laughing at us because we put our faith in this US Administration."

"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved," Abbas said in an interview on Friday with the Associated Press. "But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution."

Abbas said the "biggest obstacle" was Israel's continued construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

"We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," he said. "This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."

Abbas expressed disappointment over the failure of the US Administration to exert pressure on i Israel to implement the road map. He also expressed disappointment because neither Bush nor US Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice, with whom Abbas met separately, would not talk about the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

"We demanded that they talk about the 1967 borders," he said. "None of them talks about the 1967 borders."

Commenting on Abbas's remarks, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, said this proves that "all the talk by Bush about the establishment of a Palestinian state before he leaves office is lies and illusions."

He added: "It's time for Abbas to officially declare the failure of the talks and to resume negotiations with all the Palestinian factions about achieving national unity. The Americans don't want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital."

A few points that need to be made. First, yes it was ridiculous from the beginning for anyone to think that Israel and the 'Palestinians' could reach an agreement by the end of 2008. The only way that was going to happen would have been if the US forced Israel to concede everything from the outset. Fortunately, the US has apparently refused to do that.

Second, reading this article, one has to wonder why we should 'negotiate' with the 'Palestinians' at all. After all, they've already predetermined the 'solution' so what's left to negotiate? Israel should just say yes or no to their 'offer' and be done with it. Personally, I would say no.

But the biggest joke is the reference to 'settlement expansion' as a 'blight.' Is something that looks like this a 'blight' on any landscape? (The picture is of Moshav Elazar from Efrat).


P.S. I hope this picture gives you some idea why I refuse to refer to the Jewish cities and towns in Judea and Samaria as 'settlements.' A 'settlement' conveys a notion of being temporary. As you can tell from the picture above, the town in question - which is in the Etzion bloc - looks quite permanent.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:21 AM