HAMAS still wont recognize Israel

felonius · May 7, 2017

Given the glaring difference between the trump and Obama administration, I'm not exactly shocked to hear HAMAS changing their tune..,, they dropped the 'destroy Israel' thing, but still won't recognize Israel as a nation and still express an ambition to invade and take the Israeli territory. Therefore we can see the change as lip service only, an act of fear created by the new administrations refusal to bow down on the geopolitical stage.

There will be no apology tour, and HAMAS has WAY more work to do before Trump even CONSIDERS recognizing them.

Consider this- HAMAS feels entitled to gaining recognition as a legitimate government entity, yet CONTINUES to refuse Israel legitimacy...

https://johnib.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/hamas-drops-call-for-israels-destruction/

he Palestinian militant group Hamas dropped its explicit call for Israel’s destruction on Monday, a bid to overhaul its image as the Trump White House explores reviving Middle East peace efforts.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, also formally accepted in its revised charter the notion of a Palestinian state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. But the group didn’t recognize Israel and still expressed an ambition to take over all Israeli territory in the long run.

“This charter demonstrates our political vision and will be taught to our supporters,” Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Monday. “The 1988 charter represented our vision at that time and this one represents our vision now.”

U.S. and Israeli officials said they didn’t see the move as a real change in the approach of Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other Western governments.

The change in the charter comes days before Mahmoud Abbas, president of the rival Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, is scheduled to hold talks with President Donald Trump at the White House in which they are expected to discuss how to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It also comes as Hamas is increasingly isolated from longtime supporters in the region.

“Hamas is attempting to fool the world but it will not succeed,” said David Keyes, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Daily, Hamas leaders call for genocide of all Jews and the destruction of Israel.” A U.S. official said the Trump administration hasn’t changed its outlook on Hamas.

It’s an attempt to grab market share,” he said. “It’s a very calculated shift, but I think the Trump administration is not going to see Hamas any differently…it’s a softening of rhetoric, not a change of behavior

Hamas is also under pressure on other fronts. It has strained ties with previous backers Iran and Syria over its support for Syrian rebels. Gulf states, which have deepened their covert relationship with Israel, haven’t passed along most of the money pledged to rebuild Gaza after Hamas’s 2014 war with Israel. Turkey restored diplomatic ties with Israel last summer.

Mr. Mashaal unveiled the new charter on Monday in the Qatari capital of Doha, where the movement has its headquarters. The new charter states: “Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

In its 1988 charter, drafted a year after it was founded, Hamas called for the destruction of Israel and the Palestinian takeover of all Israeli territory. Since then, it has fought three short wars with Israel and occasionally called for a 10-year truce with its neighbor. But it has never formally recognized the state of Israel.

In revising its charter, Hamas also dropped a reference to its connection with the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas evolved in the 1980s. Egypt’s current leader, President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, came to power in a 2013 coup that ousted Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt and other Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have in recent years designated the group a terrorist organization.

In recent months, Hamas has been conducting internal elections. Mr. Mashaal is expected to step down after more than a decade as the group’s leader and to be succeeded by Ismail Haniyeh, who was the group’s local chief in Gaza until earlier this year, when hard-liner Yahya Sinwar succeeded him.

Officials with Hamas have warned that attempts by Mr. Abbas to force them to give up control of Gaza will only deepen the group’s political differences with the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Mr. Abbas’s more moderate and secular Fatah party.

Mr. Abbas last month cut salaries to workers in Gaza and told Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity supplied by Israel to the coastal enclave.

In response, Hamas asked Arab nations, including Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, to deal directly with the group and not go through the Palestinian Authority.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Mashaal has wanted Hamas to appear more moderate internationally with the eventual goal of replacing Fatah as the most influential group in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Kobi Michael, former deputy director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. The PLO represents Palestinians in negotiations with Israel.

But current and former Israeli officials expressed skepticism that the more moderate charter would be adhered to by Messrs. Haniyeh and Sinwar, who are considered more militant than Mr. Mashaal. Mr. Sinwar was convicted in the 1980s of killing Israeli soldiers and sentenced to four life sentences. He was later released in a 2011 prisoner swap.

The Fatah-dominated PLO recognized the state of Israel as part of the Oslo Accords process of the 1990s. In recent years, Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli political figures have called on Palestinians to recognize Israel specifically as a Jewish state as a prerequisite for peace. Palestinian officials have rejected that demand, saying one-fifth of the country’s population is Arab Palestinian.

Mr. Netanyahu has said he won’t accept the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders because of the security risks it poses.

He also has called it unrealistic for large numbers of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, a key demand of both Hamas and Fatah. Such an influx, he and other Israeli officials say, would jeopardize the Jewish majority.
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HAMAS still wont recognize Israel

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