Thursday, May 3, 2012

USA Funding Palestinians: Abbas and Mashaal Meet with Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani

Nadene Goldfoot
Hamas is a terrorist group in Gaza.  Both the West and Israel consider it so.  That Mahmoud Abbas wanted to reconcile  Fatah with them was spelling disaster.  Netanyahu of Israel said to Abbas that "It is either peace with Hamas or peace with Israel.  You can't have them both."

Palestinians have been divided between these two rival groups since 2007 when Hamas ousted forces loyal to Abbas from Gaza.  An agreement was recently brokered by Qatar.  Abbas is backed by the West and Hamas is supported by Iran, who has threatened Israel time and again with complete destruction.  Qatar's leader urged the Arab world to stand behind the Palestinian' "historical rights".  They are simply not the same as historical Jewish rights.  He wants full statehood and the return of lands "occupied" by Israel in the 1967 war.  He must be referring to taking over all of East Jerusalem which is now integrated with the whole city, as it should be.  Qatar's leader must be either the Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani or his religious leader,Sheik Yusuf al- Qaradawi.

No wonder so many countries are not behind Israel with the EU being one of the major financial backers of the Palestinian authority (Fatah).  They seem to think that this backing will give us all a Palestinian government committed to nonviolence while recognizing Israel.  It isn't happening.  Hamas's leader refuses to come to the peace table let alone talk to Netanyahu.  They refuse to recognize Israel while they want the world to recognize them.

This was supposed to be a serious agreement.  The Qatari sponsorship means to them that it's accepted by the West and will be funded by this wealthy Gulf state.  Abbas of Fatah was most interested in ending the split and Khaled Mashaal was beginning  to go along with this PLO position.  Mashaal has prodded Hamas to take a pragmatic stance which is closer to the parent movement, the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood.  This gives me the shivers because in their charter, they advocate destroying Israel and all Jews.

The Fatah-Hamas relationship has been on and off again many times.  Obama has just stepped over his government's decision to not loan the Palestinians millions of dollars and did so anyway.  The West has given hundreds of millions in aid to the Palestinians who then shell southern Israel constantly.  After saying that both the USA and Europe would shun any government including members of an unreformed Hamas, what is he doing?

Resource: http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/abbas-proposed-as-pm-in-interim-unity/d816d2b5936c492c989e5f66473e4bb9
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-move-toward-end-political-rift-12 

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