Israel will not recognize a Hamas government or negotiate with a Palestinian government which includes a terrorist organization

This statement by interim premier Ehud Olmert Thursday night was Israel’s first official response to the Hamas election victory.
The first Hamas statement: Negotiating with Israel and recognition are not on our agenda. The armed struggle will continue.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier asked radical Hamas terrorists to form a new government after their apparent shock victory at the polls.
His defeated Fatah slapped down participation in a Hamas-led coalition. Fatah PM and cabinet quit when early results gave Hamas a sweeping 75-80 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian legislature. Hamas control of Palestinian government is a regional earthquake that will bring the Muslim Brotherhood into power by the ballot for the first time in Middle East history.
In Gaza, in answer to a question on policy, Hamas operative Mohammed Rantisi, whipped out the late Yasser Arafat’s motto: We shall hold talks as though there is no terror and wage terror as though there are no talks. Other leaders reject negotiations, recognition of Israel or laying down arms.
The Palestinian election sets back critically the underlying objective of the US-led global war on terror: denying terrorists territorial strike bases and keeping them on the run – as manifested in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For Israel, allowing the Hamas terrorists to take part in the Palestinian election – after its takeover of the Gaza Strip – was a fatal blunder. It is now condemned to dealing with the Damascus-based Khaled Mashal and Mahmoud a-Zahar in Gaza, now holding the whip hand in Ramallah.
Behind them lurk sponsors and mentors such as Mahdi Aqaf, leader of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent body, and Sheikh Qardawi, the Qatar-based television preacher. While speaking out against suicide bombers for Western targets, this influential radical ardently advocates Muslim martyrdom for the sacred purpose of killing Israelis.
The peace strategy acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert outlined in his policy address the day before the Palestinian election is passe; it was built around negotiations with Abu Mazen and a Fatah regime in Ramallah. He failed to consider the possibility of having to face up to a Palestinian negotiating partner that takes its orders from Cairo, Qatar, Damascus and Tehran.

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