Hamas wants Abbas to stop peace talks with Israel BEIRUT, Lebanon: The Palestinian Authority must end its peace talks and security coordination with Israel if it ever expects to reconcile with Hamas, one of the militant group's senior officials said Sunday. Osama Hamdan also vowed that Hamas will continue to bring in arms to the Gaza Strip despite an Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. Hamdan's remarks are bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile the militant group, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah faction, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ruling the West Bank. Hamdan is Hamas' representative in Lebanon and is close to top Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal. His tough conditions came a week after Israel ended a devastating 23-day war to stop Hamas rocket fire that Palestinian officials say killed about 1,300 people. Thirteen Israelis were also killed. Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Abbas, rejected Hamdan's statements and said talks should take place without any conditions. "The important thing is to end the division and have a government of national unity to carry on the reconstruction of Gaza," he told The Associated Press. "All Palestinian factions should come to the dialogue under the Egyptian umbrella without any conditions." Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah by force in 2007, leaving the Palestinians divided between two governments. To aid in reconstructing the battered seaside strip, Arab officials are looking to heal the rift between the Palestinians and bring them once more under a unity government. Speaking at a rally in Beirut, Hamdan said his organization welcomed an inter-Palestinian dialogue but linked reconciliation with Fatah to the Palestinian Authority ending peace talks with Israel and backing Hamas' armed resistance against the Jewish state. "We say clearly that we welcome a national Palestinian dialogue but this dialogue must include those who really belong to Palestine and to the Palestinian cause," he said. Hamas officials have accused Abbas' government of working with Israel against the militant group. "Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the (Israeli) occupation, release (Hamas) prisoners and later end negotiations (with Israel) because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan. "It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance program to liberate the (occupied) territory and regain rights," Hamdan said. The Palestinian Authority has been conducting peace talks with Israel for more than a year. The U.S. and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group. It is sworn to Israel's destruction, a stance that has brought international efforts to isolate Gaza under its rule. Hamas leaders, who claimed "victory" in the Gaza war, have insisted Hamas have sole control over all international donations to rebuild Gaza, saying Fatah cannot be trusted to handle the aid. In his Sunday's speech, Hamdan vowed that Hamas will continue to bring in arms to Gaza despite the Israeli blockade and international offers to help in preventing arms smuggling. "Acquiring arms is our right. We will continue to bring in arms to Gaza and to the (West) Bank," he said. Hamdan said since the cease-fire took hold last Sunday, Hamas has begun replenishing its arsenal and upgrading the weapons it has. He also said sending warships to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza would not affect Hamas' armament. Also Sunday, the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command said in a statement faxed to the AP in Damascus that France's participation in a maritime blockade of Gaza's coast would "make it an enemy of our people ... and make its interests, wherever they are, subject to direct targeting by our Muslim nation." On Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered a frigate deployed immediately to the waters off Gaza in an effort to fight arms smuggling. source ______________ Hamas the voice of reason and peace. Got to love the part about Hamas saying the peace process is over - a process they alone were never a participant in and all along opposed. Hopefully the Palestinians will find leaders who seek peace and not war, who seek to help the Palestinian people instead of trying to harm Israelis. Hopefully it will happen soon. If not, Hamas will continue to attack Israel and Israel will be well within its rights to respond.
Peace needs more than talking specially when these talks that been going on since 1991 on public, and since before in secret, have led to nothing, not even to stop illegal settlements on Palestinian territories, not even temporarily, it would be of much logic when the aggression goes on against Palestinian people and their properties - the armed struggle to fight occupation goes on too, Palestinians as people under occupation have the right to obtain arms, whether in secret or in public, to keep on their armed struggle against occupation. Palestinians for long used unarmed struggle before they use armed struggle, their unarmed struggle have succeeded in explaining their cause to world organizations and in issuing UN resolutions to end the occupation, but these resolutions have met with the Israeli refusal, Israel been talking since long about peace but they never acted for peace, in the contrary, most of their acts if not all are towards killing any chance for peace.
And what is surprising , they call "Defence" --> "Terrorism" . If someone stole my home i will surely defend it with all my force . That is logical .
I guess no one wants to talk about the zillions of settlements that are being built illegally on internationally recognized palestinian land. Come on folks, if you wanna talk facts dont conveniently see some and ignore the others. The biggest issue here is the colonization settlements on the palestinian land. Why wont one of you guys here point this issue out. Anna Baltzer pointed it out, now lets hear one of you guys do the same.
The biggest issue to the Palestinians may be Israeli settlements, the biggest issue to Israel is probably the attacks on Israelis. It seems to me that both sides keep it up because each wants to use stopping as bargaining chip in an eventual settlement. That is why it is so important to get to a deal as quickly as possible. Neither side will just stop because doing so means they will have little else to offer in a deal.
The biggest issue to the Palestinians is the occupation, it's for the Israelis thieves too, one wants to see an end for occupation, the other wants to keep what he stole.