Déjà Vu All Over Again: Just Like Fatah and Arafat Before Him; Nothing Has Changed!

Mashaal to US: Give Us Advanced Missiles to Target Accurately Israeli Military

Al-Manar

"29/05/2010 Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal spoke out on Friday against American support of Israel and said that the Hamas was not against the United States but rather against its bias in favor of Israel, and stated Israel as the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

"We don’t have a problem whatsoever with the United States, nor with the American interests," Mashaal told U.S. broadcast journalist and acclaimed interviewer Charlie Rose. "America is a great state; it is a superpower and its right to keep its interests, but its interests shouldn’t be at the expense of others and the people of the region."

"Israel is the obstacle in the face of peace in the region and the United States of America, morally and politically, has to deal with this reality and not put pressure on the Palestinian or the Arab side," Mashaal argued.

Mashaal also criticized the U.S. for not holding direct talks with the Hamas and questioned whether U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell could succeed in his mission to bring peace to the region without the resistance movement.

"I think that the United States of America should have direct dialogue with Hamas without mediators [This is what the "Resistance" is all about??], because the United States is a major state, and it shouldn't fear Israel, and it should have dialogue with all concerned parties in the region," Mashaal said. "Why does he [George Mitchell] believe that he will succeed in the Palestinian issue without dialogue with Hamas?"

"Why did the American administration accept the Israeli election regardless of the results, it accepted [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, it accepted extremists like [Foreign minister Avigdor] Lieberman, to be the head of the diplomacy, and did not accept Hamas," he added and called this a "double standard."[Duh! You Finally realized that, Mr. Politburo Chief? ]....."

COMMENT:

I despair for the Palestinians and their inability to produce a leadership and a movement that is up to the task! Civil society is left on its own to do what it can, without help (and probably with the opposition) of what passes for Palestinian "leadership."