Israel Matzav

Obama and Hamas: The feeling's mutual

Hamas apparently admires President Obama as much as he admires them. On Thursday, Hamas denied a report that it supports 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's bid for 'Palestinian statehood' via the United Nations, a bid which is also opposed by President Obama.

Hamas denied Thursday that its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, had expressed support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's effort to upgrade the status of a Palestinian state to non-member.

Supporting Abbas's statehood bid would have meant that Hamas is willing to accept a Palestinian state "only" within the pre-1967 lines.

The denial came shortly after Abbas's office announced that he had received a phone call from Haniyeh and top Hamas official Ahmed Bahr, who expressed their support for the statehood bid.

Abbas's office said that Islamic Jihad leader Mohamed Hindi also phoned the PA president to voice his backing for the statehood bid.

On Wednesday, Abbas rejected US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's request that he refrain from the unilateral move at the UN.

Clinton warned Abbas during a meeting in Ramallah that his intention to go to the UN on November 29 was "politically damaging," a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post.

Abbas responded that he has already made a decision and would not backtrack despite American pressure, the official said.

Even Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal seems to have been upstaged by this one.

In an interview with CNN, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that he accepts a Palestinian state "according to 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital, with the right of return [for Palestinian refugees]."

Mashaal said that "Palestine, from the river to the sea, from the north to the south, it is my land. And the land of my fathers and grandfathers, inhibited by the Palestinian people for a long time ago. This is my land, my right."

He said that "because of the circumstances of the region, because of the keenness to stop the bloodshed, the Palestinians today, and in the past, and Hamas, have agreed about a program that accepts the 1967 borders. But the Israelis don't accept." 

Of course I'm opposed to the statehood bid. But all the cozying up to Hamas that Obama is doing is making me much more nervous. 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:15 PM