Hamas’ supreme leader Khaled Mashaal declared Wednesday evening that he will agree to a ceasefire when Israel will “disarm.”
In other words, If Israel would cease firing, dismantle its defense and let Hamas fire at will, there will be peace.
Feeling his oats with support from Qatar and his new peace partner, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Mashaal left visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry without enough room on a shred of paper even to write the word “peace.”
Kerry, who wasted his time and taxpayers’ money by dropping everything and flying to Egypt, Israel and Ramallah Tuesday and Wednesday, took a plane out of Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday night, despite a FAA ban on flights to and from Israel, VIPs are exempt from the ban, although that implies a new definition of “VIP.”
Mashaal spoke Wednesday night in Qatar, the pro-Hamas country that Kerry was so sure would use its good relations with the terrorist organization, which is banned by the United States, in order to put a ceasefire package on the table.
That makes as much sense as Hamas demanding that Israel disarm in order to bring peace – to Hamas, but not Israel.
“Our demands for a truce are legitimate,” Mashaal said. “We have presented them to Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. Today we rejected an initiative that called for a ceasefire that would be followed by negotiations. Everyone wanted us to accept a ceasefire and then negotiate for our rights; we reject this and we reject it again today.”
The silver lining is that there is one thing on which Israel and Hamas agree: The United States is not to be trusted,
Mashaal rejected Kerry’s promises that post-ceasefire talks would address Hamas’ demands. Mashaal said that history shows that American promises are “not reassuring.”
A humanitarian ceasefire still is possible, he added, but the last time that was tried, Hamas broke it.
Mashaal shot in all directions, just like his army in Hamas recklessly fires rockets at any Israeli it can reach. Hamas is not firing on innocent Israeli civilians, he asserted, It is firing at “soldiers” and armed settlers.
“Our victims are civilians,” he insisted . “We are the victims” which is true. Hamas indeed is a self-created victim of its own making, like any other machine of evil that is created for death.
Hamas’ “Operation Death Wish,” as The Jewish Press has termed it, has sucked in Abbas. The darling of the U.S. State Dept. took off his mask Wednesday by actually backing Hamas’s demands, less than two weeks after criticizing his new peace partner for shooting rockets into Israel.
His prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, stated, “We demand justice for our people, who every day and since the beginning of the Israeli occupation have been subject to the occupation for 47 years.”
Abbas and Mashaal have made the alleged “siege” as the principal demand of Hamas. The “siege” consists of three parts: One is the blockade occasionally placed by Egypt on Gaza with the frequent closure of the crossing at Rafah. Another is Israel’s maritime blockade, which the United Nations has declared is legal and is designed to prevent the smuggling explosives, weapons and terrorists into Gaza.
The third element of the alleged blockade is Israel’s supervision of merchandise that flows through Gaza crossings from Israel. The government has taken down most of the barriers the past three years. The only items that are restricted are those with a “dual purpose” that can be used for peaceful purposes and also for terror.
Cement is one of them. Israel has allowed Hamas to bring in cement for designated projects, such as hospitals and schools. The IDF has supplied ample evidence this week that many of those hospitals and schools have been built as rocket launching bases and for building sophisticated tunnels used by terrorists to infiltrate into Israel and massacre civilians, or settlers as Mashaal calls them.