Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Palestinian cause has been betrayed. But no more


These stooge negotiators have acted as tools for the repression of their people. We in Hamas must seize back the initiative

Osama Hamdan
(Head of the Hamas international relations department.)

The Guardian, Wednesday 26 January 2011

"The revelations about the conduct of the Middle East peace process made by al-Jazeera and the Guardian over the past few days have shocked people around the world, but they did not surprise the membership of Hamas. They simply confirm what many of us have been warning against for nearly two decades.

Negotiating peace on the basis of the Oslo accords was, right from the start, conducted by two unequal parties. The PLO representatives, the weaker of the two sides, had no real cards to bargain with and ended up offering concessions that gave away basic national Palestinian rights. Their main aim has been to remain in power, preserve their role in the process, and maintain the special status and privileges accorded to them as individuals in exchange for collaborating with the occupiers. Consequently they allowed the Israelis to use them as stooges and tools for the repression of the Palestinian people......

Our suspicion that the Palestinian Authority all along knew about and even conspired in the Israeli war on Gaza in late 2008 has now been confirmed by the documented testimony of both Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

As an immediate response to these revelations, we in Hamas have begun a series of communications and meetings with Palestinian factions and prominent personalities to discuss practical measures. It is our responsibility to regain the initiative [About time, Hamas. How is that reconciliation with the stooge going by the way? Are the "Egyptian brothers" planning more mediations between both of you?] in order to protect our cause and isolate those who have betrayed it."

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