Israel Can’t Trust Obama

YNET NEWS: Op-ed: President Obama’s recent speeches highlighted his affinity for the Palestinian cause

When President Obama announced his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines as the starting point for negotiations, he in effect adopted the PLO Phased Plan for the gradual destruction of Israel.

While Hamas adopted the position of destroying Israel in one step through constant armed struggle, the PLO, led by Fatah adopted in 1974 a new political method of achieving that goal through two steps. According to the plan, the first step is the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders; the second step is the liberation of all of Palestine by destroying the Jewish state through armed struggle or through the “the right of return” of millions of Palestinians to Israel, thus demographically and democratically causing Israel to lose its Jewish majority and character.

In his Middle East speech, Obama divided the core issues of the negotiations into two phases. According to the order set by the president, he in effect demanded of Israel to give up its only bargaining chip of land, based on the 1967 lines with “mutually agreed swaps” in the first phase, before negotiating t[he] other substantive questions such as the “right of return,” the Hamas-Fatah alliance, and recognition of Israel as the Jewish state.

Obama argued that by mentioning “land swaps,” he did not actually call for Israel to withdraw to the indefensible ‘67 lines, as Israel can trade off other land to avoid the ‘67 lines. But in reality the president handed the Palestinians a tremendous victory by embracing their assertion that they somehow have the implicit right to every square inch beyond the Green Line and thus must be compensated on a 1:1 basis for any adjustment. This means that if Israel wishes to keep the Western Wall or the Jewish Quarter in east Jerusalem, the Palestinians would have to agree first and then in return Israel would have to compensate them with a land swap from inside tiny Israel.

Furthermore, when the president mentioned in his speech “the fate of the Palestinian refugees”, he did not say that there will be no “right of return” to Israel proper and that the Palestinian refugees and their descendants will have to find their home in a future state of Palestine. » | Shoula Romano Horing | Sunday, May 29, 2011

New Questions About Future of Mideast Peace Talks
May 23, 2011 – President Obama facing harsh criticism over Israel border proposal

Benjamin Netanyahu Rebukes Barack Obama Over 1967 Plan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has issued a public rebuke to Barack Obama's face, telling the US president his proposed border for the Jewish state would be "indefensible" and not based on reality.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Obama that to suggest a return to Israel's pre-1967 borders did not "take into account certain changes that have taken place" in the intervening 44 years.

The president said that the talks, which had overrun in the Oval Office by more than 90 minutes, had been "extremely useful" and although he did not mention the pre-1967 borders, he reiterated the need for "a contiguous, functioning" Palestinian state.

It was the seventh Obama-Netanyahu meeting and came after Mr Obama's speech on Thursday calling for the creation of a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders triggered uproar in the Israeli government.

During the frosty public show, the Israeli premier told Mr Obama that any peace deal "based on illusion will crash on the rocks of Middle East reality". Israel, he insisted, "can't go back to the 1967 lines".

Mr Netanyahu also warned that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, would have to choose between a new unity pact with the militant group Hamas or peace with Israel. Mr Obama agreed with Mr Netanyahu that the Palestinians would have to answer "some very difficult questions" about the recent reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah – Hamas still denies Israel's right to exist.

Mr Netanyahu's anger was compounded by the fact that he had been taken by surprise, learning the contents of Mr Obama's Thursday speech about the future of the Middle East just a few hours before it was delivered. » | Toby Harnden, Washington and Adrian Blomfield | Friday, May 20, 2011

Talk to Al Jazeera - Khaled Meshaal

Inside Story: Palestinian Reconciliation
After four years of rift and rivalry; the two Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a long awaited reconciliation agreement in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Wednesday.

How did the new regime in Egypt achieve in two months what the previous adminsitration had failed to do in years?

Inside Story, with presenter Nick Clark, discusses with Gamal Abdel Gawad, from the Al Ahram Centre of Strategic Studies; Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian Initiative; and Yaakov Katz, a military and defence analyst from the Jerusalem Post.

This episode of Inside Story aired from [sic] Thursday, May 5, 2011.

Hamas and Fatah Sign Reconciliation Deal
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal on Wednesday, setting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, on a collision course with Israel.

In a surprise announcement following secret talks in Cairo, Mr Abbas’s moderate Fatah party and its Islamist arch-rival Hamas said they had put a four-year rift behind them.

The two parties pledged to form an interim unity government with elections in both the West Bank and Gaza in December.

The rapprochement is seen as a vital step towards the creation of a Palestinian state but immediately stoked fears in Israel that the moderate Palestinian Authority, led by Mr Abbas and dominated by Fatah, would swing towards radicalism.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, immediately condemned the deal.

“The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas,” he said. “There is no possibility for peace with both. Hamas aspires to destroy Israel and fire rockets at our cities ... at our children.” » | Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Arab Revolt Stokes Hamas Militancy
THE AUSTRALIAN: HAMAS political leader Khaled Meshaal yesterday praised the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and expressed the hope that they would pave the way for a more militant stance towards Israel.

The Islamic organisation has hitherto taken a cautious position regarding the events unfolding in the Arab world, apparently because of uncertainty about how they would develop. "The people in Egypt and Tunisia have given us back our lives," Mr Meshaal said in Sudan where he is attending a conference. "Today we are witnessing Cairo returning to its natural state after it disappeared from that state for a long time."

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak had adopted a tough stance towards Hamas, fearing its links with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

The Damascus-based Hamas leader urged that his organisation and the secular Fatah Party unite on the basis of jihad towards Israel.

"The first step (towards liberating Jerusalem) is refusal to negotiate with Israel and to establish a new, reconciled Palestinian position based on jihad." >>> Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem | Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Gaza: “Fatah Militants Storm Parliament”
BBC: Hundreds of Fatah gunmen have stormed Hamas-controlled institutions in the West Bank, including the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah.

The gunmen reportedly tried to seize the Palestinian Legislative Council's second deputy speaker, Hassan Khuraishah, but staff intervened.

Fatah supporters also took over the Hamas-controlled council in Nablus.

The clashes came after Fatah was ousted from Gaza by Hamas, ending a week of clashes which left more than 100 dead. Fatah militants storm parliament (more)

Mark Alexander

Hamas Close to Control of Gaza
GLOBE AND MAIL: GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP — Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and executed them in the street.

The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza.

The moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back. But his forces were crumbling fast under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Islamic fighters.

Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed before their wives and children.

"They are executing them one by one," Mr. Abu Ayad said. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting." Hamas close to controlling Gaza (more) By Diaa Hadid (Associated Press)

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
After 13 years, end game comes quickly for Fatah

REUTERS:
Hamas hails victory

NZZ:
Hamas kontrolliert Gazastreifen fast ganz: Sicherheitszentrale der Fatah erobert - Kämpfer hingerichtet

BBC:
Hamas hails 'liberation' of Gaza

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Hamas hails Gaza 'liberation'

Mark Alexander