Israel's 'Peace' Partners

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau

March 13, 2007

CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Responding to criticism by al-Qaeda's second in command, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, broadcast on al-Jazeera's satellite network Sunday, spokesman Dr. Fauzi Barhum said Hamas had not gone soft by agreeing to form a unity government with Fatah.

Since signing the Saudi-sponsored agreement in Mecca last month, the two rival terror groups - Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction - are still bickering over ministerial appointments, delaying the formation of the partnership.

Hamas released a full statement Monday in response to al-Zawahri's accusations. YNet news service reprinted enough of it to get the gist of their position.

"All the land of Palestine is wakf [Muslim endowment] land that no one has the right to give up. We will continue to be faithful to our principles regarding Palestine, the central issue of Muslims around the world.

"We will not forsake a single grain of the sand of Palestine. The Palestinian people are the spearhead of the Islamic project and the torch of our resistance will continue to burn in opposition to the Zionist enemy.

"We are a movement of jihad ["holy" war] and of resistance and will continue to be so long as a single centimeter of the land of Palestine is under occupation.

"We in the Hamas movement remain loyal to our positions and dream of dying as martyrs. We believe that this world is merely transient and assure Dr. al-Zawahri and all those who remain unwavering in their attachment to Palestine, that today's Hamas is the same Hamas you have known since its founding.

"Hamas signed the Mecca agreement to safeguard the interests of the Palestinian people."

While many want to think of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction as the more moderate of the two groups, the fact is they are both terror groups.

As The Jerusalem Post's deputy managing editor Caroline Glick pointed out in her column on Tuesday, Fatah receives 40 percent of its funding from Iran.

Over the past seven years, from the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000 until today, Fatah terrorists killed more Israelis than Hamas, making them, in her words, "unworthy of the international legitimacy" they've enjoyed.

In actuality, both groups making up the soon-to-be-formed PA coalition government seem committed to eliminating Israel, which makes talk of co-existing with the Jewish state a façade.

Their goals appear to be the same: not peace with Israel, but Israel piece by piece.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Chairman Abbas met for two and a half hours at Olmert's residence, their third meeting in the past three months.

At that meeting, the two leaders agreed that the upcoming Arab League Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the first since the 2002 Saudi initiative, could serve as a springboard for further negotiations toward fulfillment of the two-state solution envisioned by the road map for peace plan.

The question is, where are Israel's peace partners?

Sources: YNet, The Jerusalem Post

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