 BY FAREED MAHDY
(IDN Middle East Special Correspondent) - In a moderate but firm wording, HAMAS has welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's "new language" towards the Middle East conflict and his vision of "two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security". At the same time, HAMAS refused Israeli prime minister's conditions that leave no room for a viable solution.
Speaking in presence of leaders of Palestinian resistance groups on June 25 in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, head of HAMAS political bureau, requested Obama to pass from words to actions. "If we welcome the change of language only, then the change will be limited to the language only," he said.
The Palestinian political leader also welcomed "Obama's new language toward HAMAS" which he considered as "a first step in the right direction to an open dialogue without pre-conditions".
In his address in Cairo on June 4, Obama recognised HAMAS and its role in the future solution. "HAMAS does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities," Obama said.
The U.S. president conditioned this role, however. "To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people," he said, "HAMAS must put an end to violence, recognise past agreements, and recognise Israel's right to exist."
While welcomig Obama's recognition, Mashaak said that dealing with HAMAS and the Palestinian resistance "should be based on respecting the will of the Palestinians and their democratic choice, not through the imposition of conditions".
HAMAS won the January 25, 2006 elections, through which 77.7% of all Palestinian voters, not only in Gaza, elected it to rule them with a majority of 72 seats in the 132-seat Parliament.
A multinational team, led by former U.S. President James Carter and formed by 80 observers, elected officials, electoral and human rights experts, regional specialists, and political and civic leaders from 22 countries, monitored the Palestinian electoral process and certified it was clean.
When the majority of Palestinian people elected HAMAS, they were aware that HAMAS stands in Arabic for 'Islamic Resistance Movement'.
HAMAS AND NETANHAYU
Mashaal also refererd to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech in Tel Aviv on June 14, in which he dictated the conditions of his right/far-right government.
These conditions can be summarised as follows: Israel for the Jewish people only; total security for Israel only; Jerusalem for Israel only; Palestinian refugees (around 3,5 million) to stay out of Israel; Israeli settlements to expand as needed; a demilitarised territory under Palestinian control, but without any control, with the right to have a flag and an anthem and then perhaps a state.
The Israeli conditions violate all international agreements and United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Commenting on this, Mashaal said that the Palestinians "will not accept any thing less than a State with full sovereignty, within the June 4, 1967 borders, with all Israeli settlements dismantled, with Jerusalem as its capital and with the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land."
The Palestinian condictions reflect the mandate of both UN Secuirty Council resolutions and international agreements regarding the Middle East conflict.
õ"The Palestinian cause is not about having an autonomy, a flag and an anthem; it's about a homeland, an identity, freedom and sovereignty over its land," he stressed.
With regards to reported plans that Jordan should become the country of both Jordanians and Palestinians, the Palestinian political leader said that "Jordan is Jordan, and Palestine is Palestine".
Then, in an implicit reference to the French resistance and its combats to liberate France from the III Reich occupation, which has been widely hailed as "heroic", Mashaal commented on the Western pressures on HAMAS to make peaceful protests. "Peaceful resistance is good and valid for defending 'civil rights', not for liberating homelands," he said.
'COMBINE POLITICS WITH RESISTANCE'
Mashaal then called on the Arab leaders to adopt a new Arab-Palestinian strategy that "brings options and combines resistance with politics".
Mashaal referred to the debate that took place at the last Arab Summit in March this year, which decided to "keep on the table", until the end of this year, the Initiative they adopted in Beirut in 2002.
The Arab Initiative offers Israel formal recognition by all Arabs, in exchange of Israeli fulfilment of the Security Council Resolutions which mandate its withdrawal from the June 5, 1967 occupied territories, East Jerusalem included, and the creation of an independent, sovereign Palestinian State.
Now that "Netanhayu turned the table upside down, why should our offers and positions be kept on it; why should our options remain discovered, with no margin for manoeuvring and with no strength", Mashaal asked.
Mashaal said that Netanyau's speech was absolutey clear and not at all ambiguous as some people argued -- the "state he talks about is just a big prison." - 26.06.2009
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