by Daniel Siryoti, Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff
PM Benjamin Netanyahu: Instead of PA taking control of Gaza, there are increasing signs that Hamas will increase its control in PA areas of Judea and Samaria • Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas will not give up control of Gaza or disarm
Haniyeh vowed that the Hamas military wing would continue
its activities and attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu referred to Haniyeh's speech as evidence that Palestinian
reconciliation has not lead to the moderation of Hamas.
"Over the weekend, the leaders of Hamas reiterated their
intention to destroy the State of Israel," Netanyahu said. "Whoever hoped that
the Palestinian unity between Fatah and Hamas would moderate Hamas is mistaken.
Instead of the Palestinian Authority taking over Gaza, the signs are being more
and more seen that the complete opposite is taking place, i.e. that Hamas is
increasing its control in the Palestinian Authority areas in Judea and Samaria.
Therefore, international pressure must be applied on [Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas] to dissolve the partnership with Hamas.
"This touches on the roots of the conflict and the roots
of a solution in which peace is achieved between us and the Palestinians. In any
case, [Abbas] promised to uphold all of his previous commitments, and the first
of these is honoring the commitment to demilitarize the areas under the control
of the Palestinian government, including -- of course -- the Gaza
Strip."
Meanwhile, further condemnation came in from around the
world over the weekend of Israel's recent announcement of plans for construction of new residential
units in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem. The Turkish Foreign Ministry
issued a statement, asserting that Israeli settlement activities "clearly
constitute a violation of the international law and are detrimental to the
two-state [solution]."
Germany also criticized the Israeli announcement, with a
government spokesperson saying, "The German government is very worried about
this report because this step poses the threat of making efforts to continue
peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians even harder."
Also over the weekend, the Jordanian government said it
"rejects Australia's decision to no longer recognize east Jerusalem as occupied
territory."
Last Thursday, Australian Attorney-General George Brandis
said describing east Jerusalem as "occupied" was
"neither appropriate nor useful."
"It should not and will not be the practice of the
Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental
language," Brandis said.
At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu commended
Australia's statement.
"To say this sharply and with such clarity and, I would
say, courage, is refreshing given the chorus of hypocrisy and ignorance,
ignorance not only of ancient history, but of recent and current history,"
Netanyahu said.
"I certainly appreciate this stand by the Australian
government and I am certain that all those who want to see an agreement here
based on peace, justice and truth -- and it is impossible to build peace based
on historic lies -- would agree. There is truth and it must be embraced. It
requires many, many conclusions and steps, but it certainly does not require the
sanctification of lies."
Daniel Siryoti, Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17999
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment