United States: Hamas Sounds Good to Us
The Bush administration insisting on effectively granting Hamas recognition and legitimacy:
The US administration reacted cautiously during the weekend to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's threat to disrupt Palestinian elections if Hamas takes part in them. Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council, emphasized the US view that Hamas is a terror organization, but made clear that it is only up to the Palestinian Authority to decide who will take part in the elections.
If we were running an experiment, let's call it "make huge concessions and see if the Palestinians try to establish a terror state", and the first thing that happens after those concessions is that Hamas imports thousands of guns and rockets...
Large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, have been pouring into the Gaza Strip through the porous Egyptian border, IDF and Shin Bet officials warned Friday. Security officials are concerned that in the coming weeks terror cells will launch Qassam rockets from Gaza and also fear an increase in attempted terror attacks by Hamas cells originating from Rafah that would attempt to reach Israeli population centers through the Egyptian border.
According to intelligence assessments, terror experts are being brought into the Gaza Strip in a bid to recover Palestinian terror capabilities in the near future. According to a senior security official, individuals possessing in depth terror-related knowledge may have entered Gaza in recent days through Rafah.
and then the second thing that happens is that Hamas demonstrates overwhelming power and support:
Thousands of armed Hamas militants marched through Gaza City on Sunday, defying efforts to remove unauthorised weapons from the streets just days after the Palestinian president vowed not to tolerate armed chaos.
We would not make the third thing "let's give Hamas control of the Palestinian government, with its trappings of international legitimacy and its lines of international funding." Then again, we're not the United States government, and they've been doing this a lot longer than we have. And what a fantastic job they've done with the Palestinians, too.
The US administration reacted cautiously during the weekend to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's threat to disrupt Palestinian elections if Hamas takes part in them. Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council, emphasized the US view that Hamas is a terror organization, but made clear that it is only up to the Palestinian Authority to decide who will take part in the elections.
If we were running an experiment, let's call it "make huge concessions and see if the Palestinians try to establish a terror state", and the first thing that happens after those concessions is that Hamas imports thousands of guns and rockets...
Large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, have been pouring into the Gaza Strip through the porous Egyptian border, IDF and Shin Bet officials warned Friday. Security officials are concerned that in the coming weeks terror cells will launch Qassam rockets from Gaza and also fear an increase in attempted terror attacks by Hamas cells originating from Rafah that would attempt to reach Israeli population centers through the Egyptian border.
According to intelligence assessments, terror experts are being brought into the Gaza Strip in a bid to recover Palestinian terror capabilities in the near future. According to a senior security official, individuals possessing in depth terror-related knowledge may have entered Gaza in recent days through Rafah.
and then the second thing that happens is that Hamas demonstrates overwhelming power and support:
Thousands of armed Hamas militants marched through Gaza City on Sunday, defying efforts to remove unauthorised weapons from the streets just days after the Palestinian president vowed not to tolerate armed chaos.
We would not make the third thing "let's give Hamas control of the Palestinian government, with its trappings of international legitimacy and its lines of international funding." Then again, we're not the United States government, and they've been doing this a lot longer than we have. And what a fantastic job they've done with the Palestinians, too.
